JOHN     BROWN, 

AN   ESSAY   BY   HERMANN  VON   HOLST. 


JOHN    BROWN. 


BY 


DR.  HERMANN   VON    HOLST, 

PROFESSOR   AT   THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   FREIBURG,    IN    BADEN. 


EDITED   BY 

FRANK   PRESTON    STEARNS. 


BOSTON 
CUPPLES   AND   KURD,    PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1888, 

BY    CUPPLES    AND    HURD. 

All  rights  reserved. 


SECOND  EDITION. 


When  souls  reach  a  certain  clearness  of  percep 
tion,  they  accept  a  knowledge  and  motive  above 
selfishness.  A  breath  of  will  blows  eternally  through 
the  universe  of  souls  in  the  direction  of  the  Right 
and  Necessary.  It  is  the  air  which  all  intellects  in 
hale  and  exhale,  and  it  is  the  wind  which  blows  the 
world  into  order  and  orbit. —  J?.  W.  Emerson. 

Alas  for  the  man  who  knows  no  "  higher  law/' 
who  holds  himself  in  such  absolute  obedience  to  any 
power  of  governor  or  government  on  earth  that  he  is 
not  ready  to  listen  when  the  demands  of  his  own 
character  say  to  him  "  disobey  !  "  Alas  for  the  man 
who  thinks  even  the  facts  of  Nature  his  inevitable 
masters,  who  will  not  believe  in  his  power  to  over 
come  them,  even  though  it  be  by  undergoing  them, 
who  will  not  rush  through  fire,  though  it  burn,  through 
water,  though  it  drown,  to  do  the  work  which  his 
soul  knows  that  it  must  do  !  — Phillips  ftrooks. 


PREFACE. 


r  I  ^HE  late  attacks  upon  the  memory  of  John 
Brown  having  aroused  me  to  a  sense  of 
the  danger  which  might  result  from  them,  —  a 
danger  not  only  to  that  hero  but  to  all  heroism 
in  the  future,  —  I  looked  about  for  some  means 
by  which  their  baneful  influence  might  be  coun 
teracted.  Fortunately  I  found  close  at  hand  an 
honest  and  sympathetic  account  of  him  by  a 
German  writer  who  has  within  the  last  few  years 
achieved  the  highest  rank  as  an  authority  on 
American  history,  recognized  alike  by  liberal 
and  conservative  as  an  impartial  judge  of  our 
public  affairs.  Not  being  in  sufficiently  good 
health  to  make  a  translation  of  this  myself,  I 
obtained  the  assistance  for  that  purpose  of  Mr. 
Philippe  Marcou,  —  an  excellent  philologist  of 
Cambridge;  and  I  believe  that  his  version  of 
Professor  von  Hoist's  essay  will  be  found  as 


iv  Preface. 

nearly  literal  and  accurate  as  is  possible,  con 
sidering  the  differences  of  idiom  between  the 
two  languages.  It  is  not  always  possible  to 
render  Von  Hoist's  vigorous  and  comprehensive 
sentences  into  smoothly  flowing  English,  and  if 
the  translator  has  anywhere  sacrificed  an  elegant 
diction  in  order  to  reproduce  the  full  sense  of 
the  original,  the  reader  will  doubtless  decide 
that  he  has  done  rightly. 

Such  a  writer  is  no  creature  of  a  day ;  and  I 
have  no  fear  but  that  his  opinion  of  John 
Brown's  life  and  death  will  be  the  one  which 
future  generations  of  Americans  will  accept. 
No  rude  hand  will  ever  again  reach  high  enough 
to  pull  down  this  record  of  his  fame.  The  hos 
tile  shafts  of  the  so-called  realist  will  do  him  as 
little  harm  as  the  malign  sympathy  of  the  an 
archist,  or  the  indifference  of  the  historical 
pedant. 

The  essay,  however,  is  so  closely  connected 
with  Von  Hoist's  great  work  on  the  political 
and  constitutional  history  of  our  country  that 
I  considered  it  advisable  to  prepare  an  intro 
duction  to  it,  in  which  to  give  some  brief  ac 
count  of  that  history  and  the  mental  attitude  of 


Preface.  v 

the  writer  toward  it.  This  is  not  so  much  an 
abstract  of  the  book  (which  would  have  been 
too  difficult  an  undertaking  for  me),  as  a  com 
pendium  of  my  own  impressions  after  reading 
it.  I  felt  that  before  considering  John  Brown 
himself  some  statement  was  required  of  the 
social  and  ethical  problem  which  he  under 
took  to  solve,  and  through  an  understanding  of 
which  we  find,  in  turn,  the  solution  of  his  own 
character. 

At  the  suggestion  of  my  friends,  I  have  pub 
lished  in  an  appendix  a  vindication  of  the  char 
acter  of  John  Brown  from  the  principal  charges 
which  have  within  the  last  few  years  been 
brought  against  him,  as  well  as  some  remarks 
on  the  bust  of  him  by  Brackett,  from  which  the 
frontispiece  in  this  volume  is  taken,  and  the 
account  of  a  visit  to  the  grave  of  John  Brown,  < 
written  by  a  distinguished  member  of  the 
medical  profession. 

THE  EDITOR. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION ll 

JOHN   BROWN.    AN  ESSAY  BY  HERMANN  VON 

HOLST 55 

THE  FLOODS.    BY  D.  A.  WASSON    .     .     .     .  i?9 

APPENDIX. 

REMARKS  ON  THE  JOHN  BROWN  BUST     .     .  185 

REMARKS  ON  THE  JOHN  BROWN  MEDAL  .     .  189 

A  VISIT  TO  THE  GRAVE  OF  JOHN  BROWN    .  197 

UNFRIENDLY  CRITICISM  OF  JOHN  BROWN     .  204 


INTRODUCTION. 


I^BBIIY] 

^^iiFOWj^P 

INTRODUCTION 


TTISTORIANS  may  be  divided  into 
three  classes.  Firstly  is  the  rhetor 
ical  school,  represented  by  Macaulay  and 
Bancroft,  who  aim  at  producing  a  striking 
impression  ;  secondly,  there  is  the  artistic 
school,  to  which  Voltaire  and  Carlyle  be 
long, —  writers  of  great  dramatic  effect;  and 
finally,  —  what  may  be  called  the  scientific 
school,  —  those  historians  who  only  attempt 
to  tell  the  plain  facts  in  the  simplest  way, 
and  give  whatever  explanation  for  them 
seems  most  probable.  The  difference  be 
tween  the  first  and  the  second  is  like  the 
difference  between  the  play-writer  and  the 
dramatic  poet  ;  the  difference  between 
the  second  and  third  is  like  that  between 


1 2  Introduction. 

* 

the  stage  and  the  court-room.  Of  the 
latter  class  there  has  been  during  the 
present  century  no  more  conspicuous  ex 
ample  than  Dr.  Hermann  von  Hoist, 
professor  of  constitutional  history  in  the 
University  of  Freiburg  in  Baden,  Ger 
many,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  Frei 
burg  in  the  Black  Forest. 

In  one  sense  Americans  are  the  most 
cosmopolitan  of  people,  —  for  they  travel 
everywhere  and  make  themselves  at  home 
wherever  they  go.  On  the  other  hand 
Frenchmen  travel  but  little,  and  the  Eng 
lish  commonly  carry  their  island  about 
with  them,  as  a  tortoise  carries  his  shell  on 
his  back.  But  in  another  sense  the  Ger 
mans  are  the  most  cosmopolitan  people, 
because  they  are  the  only  people  who  take 
pains  to  obtain  a  clear  and  unprejudiced 
knowledge  of  other  nations.  The  Prus 
sian  staff  in  1870  knew  more  about  the 
military  condition  of  France  than  did 


Introduction.  13 

Napoleon  III.,  or  probably  any  one  of 
his  subordinates.  German  newspapers 
are  much  better  judges  of  English  politics 
than  French  or  American  papers  are,  and 
predict  more  correctly  in  regard  to  Orien 
tal  politics  than  the  English  press  is  able 
to.  When  Garfield  was  assassinated,  the 
"  Berlin  Post  "  said,  "  His  life  is  a  sacri 
fice  to  the  cause  of  good  government;"  and 
this  was  the  only  gleam  of  light  which  came 
to  us  from  Europe  in  that  dark  period. 
When  Alaska  was  purchased  from  Russia, 
a  book  on  that  country  was  immediately 
published  in  Germany  from  which  one 
might  suppose  that  the  author  had  been 
studying  the  subject  all  his  life,  so  thor 
ough  and  exhaustive  was  it.  About  the 
time  that  Sainte-Beuve  had  concluded  that 
German  literature  was  coming  to  an  end, 
Von  Ranke  was  writing  his  "  History  of  the 
Popes,"  and  Mommsen  preparing  for  his 
"  History  of  Rome,"  both  unsurpassed  in 


1 4  Introduction. 

their  way.  In  the  last  century,  Lessing  and 
Goethe  set  such  a  bright  example  of  high- 
minded  impartiality  in  literature  that  their 
country-men  could  not  but  follow  in  the 
same  path.  As  a  sort  of  natural  reaction, 
one  sometimes  meets  with  individual  Ger 
mans  who  are  the  most  bigoted  and  pro 
vincial  of  men,  unwilling  to  discover  virtue 
or  excellence  in  any  country  or  time  but 
their  own ;  but  these  do  not  represent  cul 
tivated  Germany.  Professor  von  Hoist 
represents  it  a  great  deal  better.  In  his 
great  work  called,  "  The  Constitution  and 
Democracy  of  the  United  States  of  Amer 
ica,"1  he  has  given  us  a  history  so  sympa 
thetic  and  yet  so  impartial,  so  clear  and 
yet  so  profound,  so  painstaking  and  accu 
rate  in  details,  and  yet  of  such  broad  vision 
and  correctness  of  logic,  as  probably  no 
citizen  of  one  nation  has  ever  before  writ- 

1  Verfassung  und  Demokratie  der  Verein-Staaten  von 
Amerika.     Von  Dr.  H.  von  Hoist,  Dtisseldorf. 


Introduction.  15 

ten  of  another.  Other  European  books 
on  America,  French  and  English,  have  a 
certain  strangeness  about  them,  —  we  read 
them  as  if  we  were  reading  of  a  foreign 
country, — but  H.  von  Hoist  is  native  to  the 
soil.  He  is  at  the  same  time  friendly  and 
inexorably  just.  He  does  not  even  suffer 
from  that  bias  of  impartiality  which  tries 
to  balance  opposing  elements  too  nicely 
and  produces  an  effect  of  indifference  or 
indecision.  He  is  a  disinterested  spec 
tator,  but  by  no  means  a  cold  one.  Not 
too  easily  do  we  discover  the  character  of 
the  writer  in  his  work  ;  but  at  length  it 
shines  clearly  forth  from  the  pages,  —  his 
sincerity,  his  earnestness,  his  love  of  sim 
plicity,  his  determination  to  bring  order 
and  truth  out  of  the  confusion  and  men 
dacity  of  party  politics  ;  above  all,  his 
respect  for  virtue,  admiration  of  true  great 
ness,  and  contempt  for  inflated  pretension. 
We  feel  no  little  sympathy  for  him  when 


1 6  Introduction. 

we  consider  what  a  multitude  of  speeches 
he  has  been  obliged  to  read,  what  long 
files  of  newspapers  to  hunt  through,  be 
sides  pamphlets,  legal  evidence,  and  other 
stuff,  all  in  a  language  foreign  to  him  ;  a 
sort  of  wrork  which  is  like  weeding  a 
flower-garden  where  the  weeds  are  large 
and  numerous,  and  the  flowers  small  and 
far  between.  Most  notable  is  the  respect 
in  which  he  is  held  by  the  legal  profession 
of  our  country. 

A  man  of  keen  moral  sense,  even  if 
narrow-minded,  will  usually  be  found  on 
the  right  side  of  any  public  question.  A 
broader  mind  which  sees  both  sides  pretty 
clearly  often  becomes  indecisive  on  that 
account  ;  while  the  man  of  full  mental 
breadth  who  perfectly  comprehends  his 
subject  is  naturally  a  partisan  of  which 
ever  side  has  a  better  show  of  justice  than 
the  other.  Thus  we  find  Von  Hoist  in 
the  five  volumes  of  his  history  which  have 


Introduction.  1 7 

thus  far  been  published  in  full  sympathy 
with  the  anti-slavery  movement,  which  he 
finds  to  have  been  the  main  element  in 
our  political  evolution.  At  the  same  time 
he  fully  appreciates  the  position  of  the 
South.  As  Sumner  said,  when  one  of  his 
friends  pronounced  a  curse  on  Preston  S. 
Brooks,  —  "  You  must  not  blame  him,  but 
slavery ;  he  was  the  result  of  the  institu 
tion,"  —  so  Von  Hoist  shows  true  human 
sympathy  for  a  community  doomed  by  the 
greed  of  the  English  commercial  class  to 
run  through  a  course  of  Tartarean  horrors. 
The  forced  importation  of  negroes  into 
the  colonies  led  inexorably  to  the  horrors 
and  desolation  of  a  gigantic  war.  There 
was  no  help  for  it ;  individuals  could  have 
acted  differently,  but  a  community  is  in 
the  hands  of  fate.  Democracy  and  slavery 
in  the  same  government  were  like  a  lion 
and  a  bear  in  the  same  cage  ;  both  are 
compelled  to  fight  for  self-preservation. 


1 8  Introduction. 

For  the  Northern  States  to  rid  themselves 
of  this  curse  was  not  difficult, — for  their 
economical  conditions  were  not  favorable 
to  it ;  but  in  the  Southern  States  it  flour 
ished  as  monstrous  things  only  can  in  a 
hot  climate.  It  became  the  mainspring  of 
the  Southerner's  life.  It  ruled  all  his  ac 
tions  and  drove  him  forward  in  a  course 
from  which  he  could  not  turn.  It  filled 
his  pockets,  and  made  life  comfortable  for 
him.  It  gave  its  own  tone  to  his  thought, 
and  its  color  to  his  actions.  It  produced  a 
rapid  and  superficial  civilization  which  is 
similar  to  the  strength  given  by  successive 
doses  of  opium,  —  the  more  we  take  of  it 
the  more  we  have  to,  until  we  reach  moral 
and  physical  bankruptcy.  When  finally  it 
became  a  political  lever,  the  evil  increased 
in  geometrical  ratio. 

What  made  American  slavery  worse 
than  any  previous  form  of  it,  was  that  in 
a  democracy  the  individual  has  more  free- 


Introduction.  1 9 

dom  and  is  more  irresponsible  than  under 
other   forms    of   government.       This   per 
mitted   every   Southern  planter   to   be   an 
autocrat  on  his  own  estate,  with  the  pos 
sibility  always  of   his  becoming  a  sort  of 
Nero.       The    central     government    could 
pass    no    laws    regulating    slavery    outside 
of  the  District  of  Columbia,  nor  could  the 
President  of  the  United  States  protect  the 
negro  from  the  fury  of  his  master.     The 
governments  of  the  Southern  States  were 
in    the    hands    of    the   slave-holders    (Von 
Hoist  calls  them  the  slavocracy),  who  nat 
urally  moulded   the   State  laws  in  the  in 
terests  of  their  class.     Every  planter  was 
more   than    a  king,  for  he  could  put  his 
black  subjects  to  death  without  even  the 
form    of    a   court-martial.       I    have    never 
heard   nor  read  that  any  American  slave 
owner  was  brought  to  justice  for  maltreat 
ment  of  his  slaves.     There  was  virtually  no 
law  which  regulated  the  relation  between 


2O  Introduction, 

master  and  slave  ;  whereas  the  Emperor 
Claudius  enacted  that  any  slave  exposed 
by  his  master  during  sickness  should  be 
considered  free,  and  under  the  Antonines 
the  power  of  a  Roman  citizen  to  put  his 
slaves  to  death  was  abolished  altogether. 
In  Athens  also,  slave-murder  was  held 
to  be  a  crime  sometimes  punishable  with 
death.  The  serfdom  of  the  Middle  Ages 
can  only  be  compared  to  American  slavery 
as  claret  may  be  compared  to  brandy.  The 
serfs  were  only  serfs  with  respect  to  their 
seigneurs ;  by  all  other  persons  they  were 
to  be  treated  like  freemen.  They  could  sue 
in  the  courts  and  obtain  justice,  such  as 
it  was  in  those  days,  and  in  extreme  cases 
of  ill-treatment  even  against  the  seigneur 
himself.  They  were  attached  to  the  land, 
and  their  ownership  could  rarely  be 
transferred  without  it.  Manumission  was 
frequent,  both  for  industry  and  bravery. 
Runaway  serfs  who  escaped  to  a  free  city 


Introduction.  2 1 

could  not  be  reclaimed  after  the  expiration 
of  a  certain  time.  The  Catholic  Church, 
in  those  days  a  pure  fount  of  mercy,  made 
constant  efforts  to  ameliorate  their  con 
dition,  and  at  length  obtained  their  total 
emancipation ;  whereas  in  America  the 
Catholic  clergy  always  supported  the  pro- 
slavery  ticket  in,  politics,  and  the  whole 
Christian  Church  in  the  Southern  States 
was  a  strong  prop  to  the  peculiar  institu 
tions  there. 

Perhaps  a  well-regulated  serfdom  for  one 
or  two  generations  would  have  been  the 
best  arrangement  for  the  raw  material  when 
first  imported  from  Africa.  It  would  have 
served  as  the  negro's  apprenticeship  to 
civilization  and  trained  him  up  in  good 
and  useful  ways.  We  all  go  through  this 
discipline  as  children,  and  why  not  also 
the  great  child  of  the  tropics  ?  —  the  equa 
torial  grasshopper,  as  Theodore  Parker 
called  him.  But  it  is  not  in  this  way  that 


2  2  Introduction . 

human  institutions  are  formed.  Passion 
and  superstition  unbalance  their  judgment ; 
the  pendulum  swings  ever  from  side  to  side. 
We  have  first  the  Carolina  slave  code,  and 
within  a  few  days  Governor  Moses  and 
universal  negro  suffrage.  The  theory  that 
white  slavery  was  wrong,  but  black  slavery 
right,  was  a  kind  of  bad  logic  with  which 
people  stilled  their  consciences  for  two 
hundred  years,  until  at  last  the  recoil  set 
in.  It  came  to  be  seen  more  and  more  cer 
tainly  that  the  negro  belonged  to  the  great 
human  brotherhood,  and  though  there  was 
a  difference  between  a  Zulu  and  a  Saxon, 
that  it  was  not  like  the  difference  between 
a  man  and  a  dog.  Even  in  Jefferson's 
time  the  Virginia  negro  had  become  a 
fairly  intelligent  personage.  Hamilton  pro 
posed  to  make  soldiers  of  them  and  give 
them  their  freedom  in  return  for  fighting 
the  British,  —  a  feasible  plan,  as  has  since 
been  proven.  After  the  two  races  had 


Introduction.  23 

become  a  good  deal  mixed,  and  a  great 
many  slaves  were  to  be  found  who  owned 
a  quarter  or  only  an  eighth  of  negro  de 
scent,  it  required  a  still  more  forcible  per 
version  of  honest  reasoning  to  believe  that 
all  these  were  doomed  by  the  curse  upon 
Ham.  It  was  fairly  sitting. upon  the  safety- 
valve  of  one's  conscience.  A  new  and 
most  dangerous  element  was  now  intro 
duced  into  the  problem  ;  namely,  the  su 
perior  intelligence  of  these  comparatively 
white  negroes.  Instead  of  encouraging 
this,  laws  were  passed  for  the  purpose 
of  repressing  it.  Among  Roman  slaves 
mental  ability  was  the  common  passport  to 
emancipation;  but  in  our  Southern  States  it 
was  more  likely  to  lead  to  suspicion,  harsh 
treatment,  and  ultimate  ruin.  Von  Hoist 
mentions  the  slave  code  of  Maryland  as  a 
most  disgraceful  collection  of  legal  enact 
ments  ;  and  the  pro-slavery  Constitution 
which  Missourians  attempted  to  force  upon 


24  Introduction. 

Kansas  would  have  done  little  discredit  to 
the  Spanish  Inquisition. 

That  in  drafting  the  Constitution,  slaves 
should  have  been  spoken  of  as  "  persons 
held  to  labor"  is  curious  enough  ;  but 
what  would  some  Italian  or  Hungarian 
lawyer  who  only  knew  of  America  as  a 
place  of  immigration  make  out  of  such 
a  clause  as  this :  The  first  clause  of  Sec 
tion  Nine,  Article  First  says,  — 

"  The  migration  or  importation  of  such 
persons  as  any  of  the  States  now  exist 
ing  shall  think  proper  to  admit,  shall  not 
be  prohibited  by  Congress  prior  to  the 
year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
eight ;  but  a  tax  or  duty  may  be  imposed 
on  such  importation,  not  exceeding  ten 
dollars  for  each  person." 

What  American  boy  who  now  learns  the 
Constitution  of  his  country  in  the  public 
schools  could  guess  of  his  own  wits  what 
this  was  intended  for?  I  was  formerly 


Introduction.  25 

myself  indebted  to  Justice  Story  for  an  ex 
planation  of  it.  He  says,  "  This  clause,  as  is 
manifest  from  its  language,  was  designed 
solely  to  reserve  to  the  Southern  States 
for  a  limited  period  the  right  to  import 
slaves."  I  do  not  think  this  is  manifest 
from  its  language.  It  is  only  manifest  by 
proving  a  negative  ;  manifest,  because  at 
that  time  the  clause  could  not  refer  to  any 
thing  else.  It  could  be  applied  equally 
well  now  to  the  importation  under  contract 
of  free  Croats  or  Italians  to  labor  at  a 
specified  price.  Why,  therefore,  this  am 
biguity  ?  Why  not  call  a  slave  a  slave,  as 
well  as  a  spade  a  spade  ?  In  a  national 
constitution,  if  anywhere,  language  should 
be  clear,  explicit,  and  unmistakable.  Did 
then  the  wise  framers  of  our  government 
make  use  of  such  terms  in  deference  to 
popular  prejudices  ?  Was  it  in  deference 
to  the  prejudices  of  the  North,  or  to  the 
prejudices  of  the  South  ?  Sumner  said 


26  In  (reduction . 

that  it  was  because  our  noble  ancestors 
were  unwilling  to  have  the  Constitution 
appear  to  support  slavery  or  for  the  na 
tional  government  to  recognize  slavery,  and 
brings  good  evidence  to  support  his  plea. 
Is  it  not  also  an  evidence  of  shame,  a  con 
sciousness  of  wrong,  acquiesced  in  also  by 
the  representatives  of  slave-holding  States  ? 
We  may  infer  this  from  Jefferson's  cele 
brated  utterance  on  the  subject,  "  Indeed, 
I  tremble  for  my  country  when  I  reflect 
that  God  is  just."  Thus,  from  the  cradle 
was  our  nation  possessed  of  a  guilty  con 
science  which  became  intensified  with 
time,  but  which  developed  itself  very  differ 
ently  in  the  two  opposing  sections.  In  the 
Northern  States  it  produced  an  ever  increas 
ing  disgust  of  negro  slavery  and  a  sort  of 
religious  belief  that  it  was  a  curse  upon 
the  national  life,  and  contrary  to  divine 
law,  —  a  belief  inevitably  tending  to  fanati 
cism  in  ardent  and  impulsive  natures.  In 


Introduction.  27 

the  Southern  States  it  led  more  and  more 
to  an  attempt  at  self-justification  by  spe 
cious  and  sophistical  reasoning,  thus  sub 
verting  man's  moral  consciousness  and 
resulting  in  that  ugliest  type  of  fanaticism 
which  is  evolved  from  the  worship  of  false 
idols.  Calhoun,  as  Von  Hoist  mentions, 
proved  himself  a  true  prophet  when  he 
warned  his  constituents  that  the  greatest 
danger  to  slavery  would  arise  from  the  in 
struction  in  Northern  pulpits  and  school- 
houses  ;  but  he  neglected  to  warn  them 
that  no  less  a  danger  lay  concealed  in  the 
influence  of  their  institutions  upon  them 
selves,  especially  from  the  effort  to  just 
ify  what  could  never  be  morally  justified. 
Nothing  is  more  pernicious  either  for  an 
individual  or  a  community  than  the  con 
stant  habit  of  self-justification.  It  subverts 
the  conscience,  undermines  character,  and 
leads  from  self-deception  to  self-delusion, 
and  that  infatuation  which,  as  ^schylus 


28  Introduction. 

says,  "has  death  for  its  fruits."  The  wise 
way  for  the  slave-holders  would  have  been 
to  have  avoided  agitation,  and  in  regard  to 
slavery  to  have  rested  their  defence  upon 
a  legal  basis  only.  There  were  some  who 
perceived  this  and  acted  accordingly,  but 
the  great  majority  proved  the  truth  of 
Hamilton's  maxim1  that  man  is  more  a 
reasoning  than  a  reasonable  animal.  What 
to  them  was  the  outcry  of  the  Abolitionists, 
a  handful  of  unknown  people  without  posi 
tion  or  influence  ?  Yet  from  the  first  day 
they  were  enraged  to  fury  by  the  accusa 
tion  that  slavery  was  wrong.  It  was  the  still 
small  voice  —  as  Phillips  afterwards  said, 
"  it  was  the  John  Brown  in  every  man's 
conscience  " — which  so  alarmed  them. 

The  Southerners,  however,  are  not  to  be 
blamed  for  the  results  of  slavery,  even  for 
its  influence  upon  themselves,  except  so 

1  Alexander  Hamilton,  and  not  the  English  metaphy 
sician,  who  was  perhaps  an  illustration  of  it. 


Introduction .  2  9 

far  as  all  of  us  are  to  blame  for  shirking 
the  plain  obligations  of  the  golden  rule. 
As  long  as  cotton  was  king  in  the  republic, 
it  is  not  likely  that  a  co-operative  move 
ment  for  gradual  emancipation  would  have 
been  successful.  The  tares  were  so  im 
bedded  with  the  wheat  that  one  could  not 
be  eradicated  without  pulling  up  the  other. 
Calhoun  was  also  quite  right  when  he  de 
clared  that  the  interests  of  the  slave-holders 
could  not  be  trusted  to  legislators  who 
were  not  slave-holders,  and  that  therefore 
the  South  must  acquire  new  territory  and 
new  States  to  balance  the  rapidly  increas 
ing  population  of  the  North.  It  must 
maintain  a  supremacy  in  the  Union  if  it 
was  to  remain  part  of  the  Union.  That 
supremacy  once  gone,  slavery  would  go 
with  it,  for  an  equality  with  free  labor  was 
not  possible.  The  best  argument  for  a 
protective  tariff  is  that  it  creates  a  diver 
sity  of  material  interests.  It  is  unfortu- 


30  Introduction. 

nate  for  any  country  when  one  particular 
interest  in  it  predominates  over  all  others, 
as  the  commercial  interest  in  England, 
which  has  so  often  disturbed  its  relations 
with  semi-civilized  nations,  and  so  also  the 
offspring  of  its  cupidity,  African  slavery  in 
the  United  States.  The  slave-holders  as  a 
class  are  not  therefore  to  be  blamed,  —  for 
they  were  only  puppets  in  the  hands  of 
fate ;  but  those  Southern  politicians  who 
in  disregard  of  the  prophetic  warnings  of 
Calhoun  stirred  up  sectional  hatred  among 
the  masses  so  as  to  advance  their  own  per 
sonal  ends,  —  those  Southern  Congressmen 
who  persuaded  their  ignorant  constituen 
cies  that  the  population  of  the  free  States 
were  mean-spirited,  cowardly  wretches, 
"  mudsills,"  scarcely  better  than  vermin, 
—  for  them  what  condemnation  can  be  too 
severe  ?  The  coarsest  arts  of  the  dema 
gogue  were  made  use  of  to  intensify 
provincial  prejudices,  and  after  a  time  it 


Introduction.  3 1 

happened  that  the  caucus  orator  who  was 
able  to  vilify  the  Northern  people  in  the 
most  extravagant  language  (like  the  Loui 
siana  representative  mentioned  by  Webster 
in  his  oration  of  the  seventh  of  March), 
was  the  one  surest  to  gain  an  election. 
There  were  many  in  the  Northern  States 
also  who  were  unable  to  distinguish  be 
tween  the  wickedness  of  the  institution  and 
the  innocence  of  those  to  whom  it  was 
an  inheritance.  There  were  some  among 
the  Abolitionists  who  considered  it  a  stain 
upon  the  pure  character  of  Washington 
himself  that  he  had  been  a  slave-holder. 
The  anti-slavery  people  who  would  not  vote 
for  Henry  Clay  in  1844  because  he  was  a 
slave-holder  threw  away  the  last  chance  of 
preventing  the  annexation  of  Texas  and 
the  extension  of  slavery  in  that  direction. 
Wendell  Phillips  afterward  accused  Web 
ster  and  Clay  of  promoting  the  Mexican 
War;  whereas  they  were  both  as  much  op- 


3  2  Introduction . 

posed  to  it  as  he  was.  Men  of  this  class 
were,  however,  sincere  and  free  from  per 
sonal  ambition,  for  the  road  to  public 
offices  lay  in  the  opposite  direction. 

The  influence  of  slavery  on  American 
political  life  is  made  beautifully  clear  by 
Von  Hoist  in  his  minute  painstaking  man 
ner.  What  he  has  not  yet  referred  to,  if  I 
remember  rightly,  is  its  effect  in  determin 
ing  the  Southern  character.  The  slave 
holders,  especially  Virginians,  possessed  in 
deed,  some  virtues  which  enabled  them  to 
appear  to  Europeans  in  favorable  contrast 
with  other  Americans.  Plantation  life  with 
its  tendency  to  indolence  and  prodigality, 
also  developed  rare  courage,  self-reliance, 
and  a  cheerful  hospitality.  No  army  ever 
endured  privations  with  less  complaint  or 
fought  more  heroically  in  a  good  cause  than 
General  Lee's  army  in  a  bad  one.  From 
the  soldier's  point  of  view  it  was  not  a  bad 
cause.  So  after  the  war  an  equal  heroism 


Introduction.  33 

was  shown  by  great  numbers  of  Southern 
ladies,  who,  educated  in  extreme  luxury, 
but  now  widowed,  orphaned,  their  property 
gone,  cheerfully  set  themselves  to  earn 
their  own  livelihood  in  whatever  honest 
way  lay  open  to  them.  Nevertheless,  South 
ern  culture  before  the  war  was  not  in  har 
mony  with  the  spirit  of  our  times.  Jeffer 
son  has  referred  to  that  brutality  which 
was  the  moral  reaction  of  slavery  upon 
the  master ;  but  the  possession  of  unlim 
ited  power  over  men,  and  especially  over 
women,  engenders  an  equally  pernicious 
and  almost  insane  arrogance.  Abundant 
instances  of  this  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Congressional  debates  of  thirty  years  ago, 
and  in  Southern  newspapers  of  the  same 
period.  Mommsen  seems  to  have  been  the 
first,  perhaps  the  only  European  who  has 
appreciated  this  fact,  although  there  is  a 
hint  of  it  in  Thackeray's  last  novel.  This 
only  can  explain  the  fatal  self-confidence 

3 

I    rXlVPnein.^ T 


34  Introduction. 

with  which  the  slavocracy  challenged  to 
war  the  greatly  superior  power  of  the  free 
States,  seven  millions  against  twenty,  thus 
verifying  the  old  adage  of  a  haughty  spirit 
to  a  degree  never  before  known.  By  their 
own  violence  and  temerity  the  slave-holders 
accomplished  a  revolution  which  might 
otherwise  have  been  deferred  a  hundred 
years.  Stephens  of  Georgia  recognized 
the  fact  afterward  when  he  denominated 
secession  as  a  gigantic  blunder.  There 
was  no  expectation  of  immediate,  scarcely 
of  remote,  emancipation  among  the  masses 
who  first  voted  for  Lincoln.  In  1857 
Mommsen  wrote,  "  When  once  the  slave- 
holding  aristocracy  of  Virginia  and  the 
Carolinas  shall  have  carried  matters  as  far 
as  their  congeners  in  the  Sullan  Rome, 
Caesarism  will  there  too  be  legitimized  in 
the  view  of  the  spirit  of  history ; " l  and  in 
another  passage,  "  All  the  arrant  sins  that 

1  History  of  Rome,  bk.  v.  ch.  xi. 


Introduction.  35 

capital  has  been  guilty  of  in  the  modern 
world  against  nationality  and  civilization, 
remain  as  far  inferior  to  the  abominations 
of  the  ancient  capitalist  States  as  the  free 
man,  be  he  ever  so  poor,  remains  superior 
to  the  slave  ;  and  not  until  the  dragon-seed 
of  North  America  ripens,  will  the  world 
have  similar  fruits  to  reap." 

De  Tocqueville  in  his  bright  but  super 
ficial  book  on  democracy  in  America  de 
clines  altogether  to  grapple  with  Southern 
society  and  the  slavery  question ;  yet  that 
was  democratic  also  in  its  political  machin 
ery,  and  the  most  important  factor  in  the 
whole  problem.  Von  Hoist,  however,  is  no 
compromiser,  but  seizes  boldly  upon  his 
subject.  He  finds  slavery  in  a  democratic 
republic  to  be  such  a  political  inconsis 
tency  as  could  only  end  in  violent  revolu 
tion  ;  and  Thucydides  never  made  a  better 
statement.  Thomas  Jefferson  represented 
in  his  own  life  these  two  contradictory 


36  Introduction. 

sides,  for   he  was   the   first  notable    anti- 
slavery  writer  as  well  as  the  author  of  the 
Southern  gospel  of  secession,  —  the  Ken 
tucky  and  Virginia  Resolutions,  which  have 
become  so  famous.     He  was  at  once  a  ro 
mantic  political  theorist  and  the  most  skil 
ful  of  party  politicians.      He  drafted  the 
Declaration  of    Independence;    but   state 
rights,  the  election  of  judges  by  ballot,  the 
substitution  of   metaphysical  formulas  for 
true  political  consideration,  even   the   use 
of  slander  as  a  party  weapon,  may  be  said 
to  have  originated  with  him  also.     Being 
anchored    to  nothing  firm  or  durable,  he 
floated  with  the  current  of  his  time,  and 
sympathized    with    every    popular    move 
ment,1  good  or  bad.    What  has  been  called 
his  happy  optimism  was  his  happy  uncon 
sciousness  of  this  self-contradiction. 

The  seed  sown  in  Jefferson's  time  sprang 

1  The  abolition  of  slavery  was  not  a  popular  movement 
in  Virginia,  but  it  was  so  in  France. 


Introduction*  37 

up  in  Jackson's,  —  debasement  of  the  civil 
service  ;  monstrous  defalcations  ;  shameful 
violation  of  treaties  and  constitutional 
rights  ;  and  finally,  nullification.  It  is  in 
his  perfect  comprehension  of  Jackson  and 
his  times  that  Von  Hoist  shows  himself 
the  great  historian.  The  Seminole  War 
originated  through  slavery  and  consequent 
ly  made  thousands  of  Abolitionists  in  the 
free  States.  Inexorably  as  truth  itself  Von 
Hoist  traces,  on  one  hand,  the  more  and 
more  fruitless  efforts  at  compromise  be 
tween  slavery  and  free  labor,  and  on  the 
other,  those  dark  conspiracies  and  fraudu 
lent  acts  by  which  the  slavocracy  frantically 
sought  to  maintain  its  grasp  upon  the  cen 
tral  government.  The  recovery  of  a  few 
hundreds  of  fugitive  slaves  from  the  Semi- 
noles  is  said  to  have  finally  cost  as  many 
millions  as  either  of  Napoleon's  Austrian 
campaigns.  The  acquisition  of  Texas  he 
calls  the  Nessus-shirt  in  which  slavery 


38  Introduction. 

was  strangled.  President  Polk  probably 
thought  by  taking  George  Bancroft  into 
his  cabinet  to  cover  up  his  knavish  prac 
tices  and  appear  to  posterity  in  a  favorable 
light;  but  he  did  not  count  upon  Von 
Hoist,  who  exposes  the  villany  of  his  ad 
ministration  as  unmercifully  as  Tacitus 
that  of  the  bad  emperors.  It  would  appear 
that  no  case  of  more  disgusting  oppression 
of  a  weak  nation  by  a  strong  one  than 
the  Mexican  War  has  been  known  in  mod 
ern  times.  After  that  came  the  last  futile 
effort  at  compromise,  with  the  fugitive 
slave  law  in  it  like  a  bombshell  in  the 
family  oven.  Clay,  Webster,  and  Calhoun, 
three  Herculean  statesmen,  for  a  moment 
only  were  able  to  support  the  crazy  struc 
ture,  —  and  then  went  to  their  graves.  The 
very  next  Congress  overthrew  their  work, 
and  the  Whig  party  was  crushed  in  its 
ruins.  That  such  an  omen  portended  some 
national  catastrophe  ought  to  have  been 


Introduction.  39 

plain  to  the  very  dullest  souls,  for  a  well- 
established  political  party  will  commonly 
live  for  several  decades  after  its  apparent 
raison  cCetre  has  passed  away. 

Out  of  the  ashes  of  the  Whig  party 
arose  the  Republican  party,  vigorous  and 
resplendent  in  the  new  morning.  Affairs 
however,  had  to  grow  worse  before  they 
could  become  better.  The  central  govern 
ment,  in  the  hands  of  the  most  unscrupu 
lous  men  who  have  ever  disgraced  it,  lost 
more  and  more  the  respect  of  the  masses 
in  all  sections  of  the  country.  The  Presi 
dent  himself  became  an  object  of  derision. 
Courts  of  law  were  transformed  into  par 
tisan  engines  of  political  corruption.  The 
arrogance  and  brutality  of  the  slavocracy 
culminated  in  the  murderous  assault  upon 
an  United  States  Senator.  Hell  itself 
seems  to  have  been  enacted  in  Kansas, 
where  the  central  government  sought  to 
impose  slavery  by  force  upon  the  refractory 


4-O  Introduction. 

Northerners.  What  can  be  more  distress 
ing  than  that  poor  men  should  be  driven 
from  their  homes  with  the  connivance  of 
that  government  which  was  constituted  to 
protect  them  ?  Amid  such  confusion  there 
arose  a  grand  character,  John  Brown,  of 
Ossawatomie,  the  central  figure  of  this 
gloomy  period,  who  took  the  sword  of  jus 
tice  into  his  own  hand,  but  was  afterward 
crushed  by  entering  into  a  conflict  with 
conventional  right.  Von  Hoist  has  hon 
ored  this  unique  hero  (and  himself  at  the 
same  time),  by  writing  a  separate  essay 
upon  him,  published  in  Vol.  XLI.  of  the 
"Preussische  Jahrbiicher,"  Berlin. 

Professor  von  Hoist  is  no  writer  of 
panegyrics.  His  tone  is  cool,  judicial,  dis 
passionate.  He  rarely  rises  to  eloquence, 
and  whenever  his  subject  happens  to  be  a 
dry  one  he  goes  steadily  through  it  with 
genuine  scientific  patience.  Neither  does 
he  waste  time  on  biography.  The  analyti- 


Introduction.  4 1 

cal  tendency  of  his  work  leads  him  in 
other  directions,  and  many  a  person  who 
deserves  recognition  in  American  history 
receives  from  him  merely  a  brief  no 
tice,  or  perhaps  none  at  all.  The  more 
remarkable  therefore  is  the  special  promi 
nence  which  he  gives  to  this  plain,  un 
educated  backwoodsman.  The  picture  of 
John  Brown  he  draws  for  us  is  no  splendid 
Italian  ideal,  but  rather  a  realistic  German 
wood-cut,  like  those  of  Durer,  in  which 
no  wrinkle  is  smoothed  over,  no  angularity 
softened.  Such  a  portrait  wins  our  confi 
dence,  for  it  appeals  directly  to  our  sense 
of  veracity.  A  friend  of  ours  once  sug 
gested  that  Carlyle  was  the  one  person  to 
have  written  a  life  of  John  Brown,  if  fortu 
nately  he  had  happened  to  be  acquainted 
with  him.  No  doubt  Carlyle  would,  for 
his  was  a  literary  genius  of  the  highest 
order,  and  of  all  writers  of  that  time  he 
was  the  most  like  John  Brown  in  his  own 


42  In  troduction. 

nature.  He  could  not  however  have  ex 
plained  the  relation  of  Brown  to  American 
politics  as  Von  Hoist  has  done  it,  for  poli 
tics  proper  Carlyle  neither  cared  for  nor 
understood,  except  in  an  elementary  way. 
History  was  to  him  a  grand  drama,  in 
which  only  the  most  notable  events  and 
the  most  distinguished  actors  were  inter 
esting;  but  to  Von  Hoist  it  evidently  ap 
pears  as  currents  great  and  small  of  human 
life,  modified  by  the  action  of  prominent 
individuals. 

It  is  in  tracing  out  these  currents,  as 
an  explorer  determines  the  geographical 
position  of  an  unknown  river,  that  Von 
Hoist's  chief  excellence  consists.  The 
chapter  in  his  constitutional  history  on 
the  rise  of  the  anti-slavery  movement,  is 
a  capital  illustration  of  this.  He  follows 
it  from  its  fountain  to  the  broad  current  in 
which  he  discovers  John  Brown,  like  a  great 
cataract  forcing  the  waters  rapidly  onward 


In  troduction.  4  3 

to  their  final  disappearance  in  the  broad 
ocean  of  emancipation.  This  unequalled 
importance  of  the  man  he  appreciates 
fully ;  but  does  he  also  appreciate  that 
superior  quality  in  Brown's  nature,  —  the 
single-minded  earnestness  of  this  grim 
old  Puritan,  which  won  for  him  so  readily 
the  confidence  of  Emerson  and  Parker 
and  Andrew,  cultured  men  of  the  best 
American  type  ?  Von  Hoist  does  not 
mention  this,  but  he  says :  "  The  man  of 
flesh  and  bone  led  a  life  such  as  many 
thousands  of  Americans,  who  from  the 
cradle  almost  are  left  to  shift  for  them 
selves,  still  lead  to-day ;  but  the  man 
whom  God  had  chosen  as  a  mortal  vessel 
for  his  immortal  spirit,  led  alongside  of 
this  life  another  life,  of  which  a  few  only 
were  cognizant."  This  is  certainly  a  strong 
hint  of  something  uncommon  in  the  man, 
—  either  genius  or  exceptional  character. 
It  is  in  under-estimating  the  importance 


44  In  troduction . 

of  his  Kansas  work  that  Von  Hoist,  if  at 
all,  fails  to  do  him  full  justice.     As  twenty 
years  earlier  John  Quincy  Adams,  the  true 
hero  of  his  period,  fought  and  won  alone 
the  first  battle  against  the  slavocraey  by 
fearlessly  insisting  on  the  right  of  petition 
in  Congress,  —  an  action  which  Von  Hoist 
celebrates  in  his  most  spirited  manner, — 
i  so   was    John    Brown,    and    the    Eastern 
I  friends   who  supported   him,    the   first  to 
'<,  organize   armed    resistance    to  the  illegal 
j  jaggression    of   the   slavocraey  in   Kansas. 
'  If  one  marked  an  epoch  in  our  history,  so 
did  the  other  none  the  less.     As  Ather- 
ton's    gag-law  was  a  blow  aimed   at   the 
foundation  of  constitutional  right,  likewise 
the    Atchison    invasion   was   a   bombshell 
fired  at  the  pillars  of  constitutional  gov 
ernment.     We  have  the  testimony  of  an 
Englishman,  a  relative  of  Mr.  Gladstone, 
—  presumably  an  impartial  witness,  —  that 
while  the  pro-slavery  invaders  of  Kansas 


Introduction.  45 

were  insolent  and  audacious  in  an  extreme 
degree,  the  Free-State  people  seemed  to 
lack  even  the  confidence  and  resolution 
requisite  for  self-protection.  No  wonder  it 
was  so,  when  the  former  were  encouraged 
by  the  President  of  the  nation,  and  the 
latter  found  to  their  horror  that  the  laws 
which  they  venerated,  and  which  had  al 
ways  before  protected  them,  were  now 
become  their  enemy. 

Those  only  who  have  been  tossed  about 
in  an  earthquake  might  appreciate  this  sen 
sation.     Then  is  the  time  for  firm  hearts 
and  indomitable  wills.     It  is  a  fearful  mo 
ment  in  the  consciousness  of  a  community, 
—  the  quick  transition  from  peaceable  pro 
test  to  the  use  of  death-dealing  weapons. 
It  must  not  come  too  soon  or  too  late.M 
John   Brown   effected  this  transition,   not  i 
only  for  Kansas  but  for  the  whole  nation.  » 
His  little  battles  of  Black  Jack  and  Ossa- 
watomie  correspond  in  a  surprising  man- 


46  Introduction. 

ner  to  Concord  Bridge  and  Bunker  Hill; 
as  Pottawatomie,  also,  to  the  State  Street 
massacre  in  Boston.  The  Missourians 
were  taught  that  shooting  was  a  game 
which  both  sides  could  play  at.  John 
Brown  set  an  example  which  Lane,  Mont 
gomery,  and  others  soon  imitated  with  ad 
vantage.  Y  The  first  shot  he  fired  was  the 
signal  of  a  new  era  in  American  history, 
and  it  electrified  the  whole  country  as  only 
Adams  had  done  once  before.  To  obey 
the  laws  is  often  difficult;  to  break  them 
is  easy ;  but  to  rise  above  them  is  nobility 
itself.  On  the  whole,  however,  Von  Hoist's 
account  of  John  Brown  is  the  best  that  has 
yet  seen  the  light,  —  the  most  impartial 
and  the  most  discriminating;  and  it  would 
be  unreasonable  to  expect  everything  in  a 
single  essay.  No  other  has  shown  so  pro 
found  an  insight  of  the  man  and  his 
historical  relations. 

In  conclusion,  it  would  be  only  just  to 


Introduction.  47 

remark  that  this  essay  was  published  in 
Berlin  before  Dr.  von  Hoist  had  an  op 
portunity  to  examine  the  latest  biography 
of  John  Brown.  In  a  private  letter  he 
says  of  it :  "  In  the  main,  my  views  of 
Brown's  character  and  the  historical  sig 
nificance  of  his  career  have  undergone  no 
change,  though  the  new  materials  brought 
to  light  by  Mr.  Sanborn  render  some 
corrections  as  to  details  necessary."  The 
details  in  this  case  are  fortunately  not 
essential.  The  individual  acts  of  such  a 
man  are  like  the  strokes  of  the  sculptor ; 
it  is  not  the  chips  which  interest  us,  but 
the  whole  statue.  We  anxiously  await  Von 
Hoist's  opinion  of  that,  because  he  has 
proved  himself  to  be,  and  is  now  every 
where  admitted,  a  competent  critic  of  the 
actions  of  men.  In  these  words  he  gives 
his  final  judgment:  "Millions  of  eyes  were 
fastened  on  him  in  anxious  expectation,  to 
see  whether  he  would  not  betray  at  the 


48  Introduction. 

last  moment  that  he  was  wearing  a  mask, 
even  though  this  mask  might  be  woven  of 
the  thinnest  gauze  wire ;  but  after  he  had 
stood  ten  minutes  like  a  statue,  with  the 
rope  around  his  neck  and  the  cap  drawn 

,  over  his  eyes,  the  millions  drew  a  deep 
breath,  —  he  was  wholly  pure,  wholly  true. 
And  this  is  why  John  Brown's  life  and 
death  struck  the  minds  and  consciences 
of  the  North  with  a  far  mightier  blow 

(than  the  Lundys,  Garrisons,  and  Doug 
lases  could  deal  with  their  most  heartfelt 
speeches."  I  have  lately  heard  an  opinion 
similar  to  this  last  from  a  veteran  lawyer 
of  Boston,  one  of  the  most  highly  respected 
members  of  the  Suffolk  Bar. 

As  intimated  already,  of  the  various 
biographies  of  John  Brown  the  one  by 
Sanborn  is  decidedly  the  best.  Redpath's 
was  written  at  a  time  when  full  informa 
tion  in  regard  to  Brown's  life  could 
scarcely  be  obtained,  and  though  it  served 


Introduction.  49 

well  enough  the  purpose  of  the  moment, 
and  was  composed  in  an  excellent  spirit, 
is  too  much  in  the  style  of  the  daily 
pressman  to  be  quite  worthy  of  its  subject. 
Another  biography  written  by  a  Dr.  Webb 
of  Dublin,  Ireland,  appears  to  have  been 
constructed  upon  hearsay,  and  is  quite 
untrustworthy.  Mr.  Sanborn's  "  Life  and 
Letters  of  John  Brown,"  however,  is  a 
work  based  throughout  on  documentary 
evidence.  During  twenty  years  or  more, 
Mr.  Sanborn  collected  all  possible  infor 
mation  in  regard  to  his  hero  in  Kansas, 
Massachusetts,  Ohio,  Virginia,  —  wherever 
John  Brown  had  lived  and  worked  and 
suffered.  He  has  placed  this  evidence 
before  the  reader  in  a  plain,  sincere  man 
ner,  without  embellishment  or  reservation. 
;  If  its  details  are  sometimes  found  to  be 
.  tedious,  they  will  always  be  valuable  to  the 
student  of  history.  They  give  a  faithful 
impression  of  the  hard,  toilsome,  Spartan 

4 


5  O  In  troductlon . 

life  of  the  man,  which  disciplined  him  so 
well  for  his  last  great  struggle  with  the 
slave  power.  What  we  miss  in  it,  I  think, 
is  an  adequate  explanation  of  the  internal 
man,  —  the  informing  spirit  of  John  Brown 
himself.  There  are  glimpses  of  this  -here 
and  there  through  the  book,  but  not 
enough  to  produce  a  deep  impression. 
What  Mr.  Sanborn  substitutes  for  it  - 
namely,  tjiatjns  herQ  .was  .a -special  instru 
ment  of  the  divine  will,  one  to  whom  God 
made  his  purposes  directly  known  -  -  is 
rather  a  deus  ex  machina,  and  is  not  likely 
to  be  credited  in  a  critical  era  such  as 
our  own.  It  is  true  that  Brown  appears 
to  have  believed  this  himself ;  but  men  of 
action  as  well  as  poets  too  frequently  as 
cribe  to  an  external  impulse  what  is  noth 
ing  more  than  the  sudden  concentration  of 
their  own  mental  forces.  But  who  will  ex 
plain  to  us  those  grandly  reticent  natures 
who  never  explain  themselves  ?  Shak- 


Introduction.  5 1 

spere,  who  explains  to  us  everything  else 
in  human  nature,  says  nothing  of  them. 
Milton  may  have  given  us  a  hint  in  Sam 
son  Agonistes ;  and  in  that  far  off  Grecian 
morning  of  man's  intellectual  life,  there  is 
the  Prometheus  of  /Eschylus.  We  see 
their  forms  upon  the  ceiling  of  the  Sistine 
Chapel ;  we  behold  them  with  wonder  and 
admiration,  but  we  do  not  know  them. 


JOHN    BROWN, 


AN   ESSAY  BY  HERMANN  VON   HOLST. 


JOHN   BROWN. 


V\7HEN  the  spring  sun  has  gained  so 
much  power  that  the  snow-fields 
of  the  mountains  begin  to  send  rivulets 
into  the  valley,  destruction  threatens  from 
every  cliff  and  crag.  The  report  of  a  gun, 
a  loud  call,  are  said  to  be  sufficient  to 
push  over  the  ridge  a  small  mass  of  snow, 
which  as  it  falls  grows  to  an  avalanche, 
and  may  cover  up  whole  villages. 

I n  the  same  way  it  happens  sometim es 
in  the  life  of  nations  that  things  have 
been  slowly  growing  ripe  for  a  catastrophe,  .  i 
which  is  finally  brought  about  by  a  deed 
whose  significance,  considered  in  itself, 
stands  in.  ridiculous  contrast  to  its  world- 
wide.  effects. 


56  John  Brown. 

Thus  the  same  act  which  changed  the 
United  States  of  America  from  a  rapidly 

I  decaying  union  of  States  into  a  federal 
union^such  as  would  live  and  prosper,  ren 
dered  a  violent  disruption  of  the  republic 

.inevitable  in  the  future.  But  although 
three  generations  passed  away  before  the 
fates  could  be  accomplished,  yet  the  almost 
insanely  rash  undertaking  of  a  high-minded 
enthusiast  proved  in  a  single  night  that 
the  time  was  come  in  which  they  must  be 
accomplished  with  inconceivable  horror. 

The  new  Constitution  which  went  into 
effect  in  1789  founded  the  structure  of  the 
State  on  two  opposing  principles.  The 
Union,  in  accordance  with  actually  exist 
ing,  legally  sanctioned  conditions  and  after 
the  pattern  of  the  separate  States,  was  or 
ganized  as  a  moderate  democratic  republic 
whose  constituent  members  enjoyed  com 
plete  equality  before  the  law.  But  at  the 
same  time,  —  and  here  again  in  accordance 


John  Brown.  57 

:  with  the  actual  state  of  things,  —  the  Con 
stitution  recognized  the  existence  of  negro 
j  slavery  in  most  of  the  States  as  a  fact  which 
'it  took  into  account  in  various  ways,  going 
even  so  far  as  to  enter  into  positive  en 
gagements  without  reserving  in  regard  to 
this  fact  adequate  rights  for  the  federal 
government.  ^  The  development  of  the  lib 
eral  democracy  and  of  the  diametrically 
opposed /£lavocra£y  proceeded  simultane- 
ouslyTy  However,  in  accordance  with  the 
nature  of  such  things,  the  former  principle 
spread  much  more  rapidly,  in  the  literal 
and  in  the  metaphorical  sense  of  the  word, 
both  because  it  was  common  to  all  parts 
of  the  Union,  and  because  it  was  only 
through  this  principle  that  the  powers  of 
the  individual  could  attain  their  highest 
development.  )  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
was  just  as  much  in  the  nature  of  things 
that  the  slave-holders  should  more  and 
more  get  control  of  the  Union, —  partly  be- 


58  John  Brown. 

cause  they  were  indissolubly  bound  to 
gether  by  an  interest  to  which  they  subor 
dinated  everything  else,  and  partly  because 
by  favor  of  this  interest  they  maintained 

themselves  ^airiS1"  ^P  fprWal   gnvprnmpnf 

and  against  the  free  States  on  important 
legal  rights,  without  binding  themselves  to 
the  performance  of  corresponding  duties. 
The  more  rapid  the  growth  of  the  free 
North  in  population,  wealth,  culture,  and 
morality,  the  more  abject  grew  the  servility 
of  a  portion  of  the  Northern  politicians 
toward  the  great  Southern  slave-holders ; 
and  the  more  boundless  the  despotism  of 
the  latter,  the  more  certainly,  swiftly  did 
they  see  the  day  of  their  ruin  approach. 
Each  new  victory  placed  them  in  a  more 
violent  and  more  hopeless  opposition,  not 
only  to  the  majority  of  the  North  and  to 
the  fundamental  spirit  of  the  federal  Con 
stitution,  but  also  to  all  the  traditions  and 
institutions  of  the  slave  States',"1  in  so  far  as 


John  Brown.  59 

they  were  not  the  outgrowth  of  slavery. 
Through  the  activity  of  the  liberal  demo 
cratic  spirit,  the  Union  became  gradually 
consolidated  into  a  national  State ;  and 
slavery,  which  grew  continually  more  prom 
inent  as  the  leading  principle  in  the  South 
ern  States  and  the  main  interest  in  national 
politics,  became  every  day  more  and  more 
an  impossibility  in  this  national  State, 
whether  from  an  economical,  a  political,  a 
social,  or  a  moral  point  of  view. 

The  slave-holders,  who  were  too  weak  to 
withstand  the  irresistible  development  of 
existing  conditions,  were  yet  strong  enough 
to  grasp  the  political  power,  and  they 
dragged  the  Union  into  their  service  with 
ever  increasing  recklessness,  while  at  the 
same  time  they  more  and  more  uncondi 
tionally  denied  that  the  Union  was  compe 
tent  in  matters  connected  with  slavery. 
They  hammered  harjd-~tQjconsplidate  the 
federal  republic,  and  they  tore  with  brutal 


60  John  Brown. 

violence  all  binding  threads  into  loose  fil 
aments,  —  and  all  for  the  service  of  the 
"  peculiar  institution."  The  more  wildly 
they  dragged  the  Union  to  the  right,  the 
more  pitilessly  were  they  obliged  to  goad  it 
to  the  left,  f  Slavery — which  was  especially 
fed  by  the  constantly  increasing  demand 
for  cotton! —  was  like  wiidfixe-  on  a  dry 
prairie,  arousing  by  its  own  heat  the  whirl 
wind  which  drives  it  madly  onward,  but  at 
the  same  time  spending  itself  the  more 
rapidly,  the  more  irresistibly  it  rushes  on. 

The  struggle  of  the  principle  of  free 
dom  with  the  slavocratic  principle  was  ex 
pressed  most  clearly  in  the  contest  over 
territorial  extension ;  and  the  beginning  of 
the  end  was  at  hand  when  the  South,  in 
order  to  make  good  its  claims,  had  to  tear 
down  with  its  own  hands  the  barriers 
which  it  had  erected  thirty  years  before  by 
its  utmost  efforts.  The  constant  acquisi-i 
tion  of  new  territory  was  for  the  South  a' 


John  Brown.  61 

conditiogLjpf  existence,  for  the  only  pos 
sible  method  of  cultivating  the  land  by  the 
labor  of  slaves,  systematically  reduced  to 
the  condition  of  brutes,  was  one  that  ex 
hausted  the  soil ;  and  the  much  more  rapid 
growth  of  the  free  North  made  an  artificial 
increase  of  the  number  of  slave-holding 
States  a  necessity,  since  the  continuance 
of  the  Southern  rule  was  bound  up  with 
the  maintenance  of  an  even  balance  of  the 
parties  in  the  federal  Senate.  However, 
the  territory  which  the  JSouth  had  ao- 
quired  by  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  from 
France,  in  1803,  and  by  the  Florida  treaty 
with  Spain,  in  1819,  had  already  been 
brought  into  play,  while  the  already  far 
more  powerful  Northjiad  still  an  immeas 
urable  ex{gnt_of  land  to  fall  back  upon. 
The  annexation  of  Texas,  which  had  been 
contended  for  by  the  South  during  sixteen 
years  with  the  greatest  persistence  and 
With  much  skill,  but  greatly  at  the  ex- 


62  John  Brown. 

pense  of  the  country's  honor,  again  drew 
the  tongue  of  the  balance  more  to  the  side 
of  the  slave-holders  in  1845.  But  appe 
tite  grows  with  what  it  feeds  on ;  and  al 
though  Texas  was  as  large  as  a  good-sized 
kingdom,  it  could  not  long  counterpoise 
the  natural  growth  of  the  North.  Mexico 
had  threatened  to  consider  the  annexa 
tion  a  casus  belli  \  and  when,  feeling  its 
powerlessness,  it  failed  to  fulfil  its  threat, 
the  i  United  States  forced  on  the  war  in 
order  to  carry  the  star-spangled  banner 
and,  as  the  South  thought,  slavery  also,  to 
the  Pacific  shore.  /  Calhoun,  who  as  Sec 
retary  of  State  had  brought  about  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  threw  his  whole 
weight  as  senator  against  this  unrighteous 
war  of  conquest.  }  He  was  the  living 
personification  of  the  slavocratic  instinct, 
and  he  recognized  the  fact  that,  were  the 
policy  of  the  annexation istsjo  triumph,  the 
slave-holders  would  be  inflicting  on  them- 


John  Brown.  63 

selves  a  fearful  and  perhaps  a  fatal  wound. 
His  warning  was  unheeded.  The  blinded 
clan  dashed  past  their  great-minded  leader, 
whose  fears  were  fulfilled  more  completely 
than  he  himself  had  anticipated.  While 
in  the  far  West  iron  and  lead  did  their 
bloody  work,  in  Congress  freedom  and 
slavery  wrestled  for  the  territory  which  it 
was  expected  would  be  acquired.  The 
Southerners  succeededj  with  the  help  of 
their  Northern  partisans,  in  preventing  a 
decisive  settlement_of  the  parliamentary 
contest./...  An  immense  territory  was  added 
to  the  Union  by  the  treaty  of  peace  ;  and 
the  attempt  to  secure  this  territory  against 
the  introduction  of  slavery  by  a  resolution 
'/of  Congress,  was  not  successful.  But  the 
population  of  California  and  of  New  Mex 
ico  demanded,  with  a  majority  amounting 
almost  to  unanimity,  to  be  allowed  to  ward 
this  curse  from  their  borders.  The  strug 
le  for  the  annexed  territory  raged  anew, 


64  John  Brown. 

and  this  time  with  a  violence  which  shook 
the  Union  to  its  deepest  foundations. 
Calhoun,  worn  out  by  grief  and  cares,  died 

'  before  a  decision  was  reached.  Daniel 
Webster  thought  he  could  pave  his  way  to 
the  White  House  by  lowering  himself  to 

i  hold  the  stirrup  of  the  slavocracy.  He 
tried  to  clutch  a  shadow,  and  lost  the  re 
spect  of  those  who  thought  that  such  a 
mess  of  pottage  as  the  presidency  was  too 
small  a  price  for  freedom  and  loyalty  to 
principle.  The  gray-haired  Henry  Clay 
hastened  once  more  from  his  quiet  Ash 
land  to  the  Senate,  and  devoted  his  dying 
energies  to  patching  up  the  cloak  which 
was  dropping  to  pieces  like  rotten  tinder, 
with  still  more  rotten  rags.  This  great 
undertaking  succeeded.  ^After  six  months' 
tremendous  labor  the  so-called  compromise 
of  1850  saw  the  light.  It  was  a  bargain,  like 
all  the  previous  bargains  that  were  falsely 
called  compromises ;  the  free  North  was 


John  Brown.  65 

despoiled  of  much  that  formed  a  part  of 
its  most  sacred  rights  and  highest  inter 
ests  ;  but  still  the  slave-holders  had  not  ! 
succeeded  in  getting  all  they  wanted,  and 
the  chasm  which  irreconcilable  contradic 
tions  of  principle  had  opened,  between 
North  and  South,  yawned  broader  than 
ever,  and  the  web  of  sophistical  formulas 
and  phrases  which  should  have  bridged  it 
over  was  more  transparent  and  flimsy 
than  ever.  The  mass  of  politicians,  how 
ever,  in  both  camps  grew  loudly  jubilant 
over  the  eternal  peace.  Both  parties  were 
pledged  to  the  compromise  in  the  most 
formal  fashion  by  the  politicians  who  met 
in  the  national  conventions. 

If  only  words  could  have  done  away  with 
disagreeable  facts !  The  extreme  wings  of 
both  parties  grew  very  bitter  over  the  con 
ditions  of  this  penny-wise  transaction,  con 
ditions  which  were  alike  dishonorable  and 
impossible  of  fulfilment;  and  the  contradic- 
5 


66  John  Brown. 

tion  between  the  promises  of  the  compro 
mise  and  the  actual  state  of  affairs  grew 
constantly  greater.  The  sweat  was  scarcely 
dry  on  the  brows  of  the  worn-out  politi 
cians  when  they  were  forced  to  work  with 
busy  hands  to  loosen  the  knots  of  the 
highly  artistic  net  which  they  had  woven 
with  so  much  pains.  \The  compromise 
had  been  a  heavy  blow  for  the  North,  but 
the  South  had  not  won  by  its  means  any 
new  territory  for  slavery.  California  had 
been  admitted  as  a  free  State  (Statutes  at 
Large,  ix.,  452),  and  the  question  as  to 
the  right  to  hold  slaves  in  New  Mexico 
and  Utah  had  been  silently  passed  over 
as  long  as  they  remained  Territories  (Ibid. 
pp.  447,  453);^ 

T  Whatever  concessions  mrght  be  made 
to  the  slave-holders,  their  defeat  and  final 
ruin  were  unavoidable  if  they  remained 
confined  within  their  then  boundaries.  But 
what  had  just  happened  in  California 


John  Brown.  67 

opened  to  them  a  melancholy  prospect  in 
case  the  question  were  left  open  until  the 
Territories  were  received  as  States  into  the 
Union  ;  for  there  the  members  of  the  con 
vention  to  draft  a  Constitution,  even  those 
of  Southern  origin,  had  voted  unanimously 
to  exclude  slavery.  The  slave-holders'  party 
must  make  sure  of  the  Territories  if  it 
wished  later  to  have  control  over  the 
States.  The  radical  leaders  of  the  party 
therefore  maintained  that  slavery  and  free 
dom  were  equally  lawful  in  all  the  Terri 
tories  of  the  Union,  and  that  no  political 
power  had  the  right  to  exclude  slavery. 
BuTeven  their  most  devoted  adherents  in 
the  North  would  not  agree  to  this,  and 
even  the  more  moderate  Southern  politi 
cians  refused  to  deny  in  so  brazen  a  fash 
ion  a  principle  which  the  great  Southern 
statesmen  had  always  recognized  as  law 
and  had  used  as  a  guide  for  their  actions. 
But  the  men  who  wished  for  peace  at  any 


68  John  Broivn. 

price  and  the  politicians  who  thought  that 
the  Southern   party  was  most  likely  to  fa 
vor  their  reckless  ambition  were  absolutely 
sure  of  one  thing  ;  namely,  that  the  raging 
South  must  be  satisfied.     They  sought  to 
-  escape   from    the   dilemma   by    means   of 
the  doctrine  whose  promulgation  is  errone- 
I     ously  ascribed  to  Senator  Sjephen^Dou^las, 
t    of  Illinois,  —  the  doctrine  of  the  so-called 
^ squatter  sovereignty.      According  to   this 
doctrine    Congress    could    neither    forbid 
slavery  in  the  Territories  nor  in. trod uce  it 
/there ;  on    the   other    hand,  the    squatters 
should   have  the  right  to  decide  whether 
they  would  allow  slavery  or  not.    This  is  not 
the  place  to  set  forth  the  utter  nonsense 
of  this  doctrine,  whether  from  a  constitu 
tional   or  from   a  political   point  of  view. 
"The  majority  of  Congress  adopted  it  and 
thereby  overthrew,  the    Missoun^jcomgro- 
mise.     This  compact,  which 'forever  prohib 
ited  slavery  north  of  36°  31',  had  hitherto 


John  Brown.  69 

been  recognized  by  all  parties  without  dis- 
\  tinction  as  peculiarly  sacred  and  as  bind 
ing  for  all  time.  In  its  stead  the  law. of 
nature  was  now  set,  —  the  bellum  omnium  l/ir 
contra  omnes.  '  Kansas  Territory  was  the 
first  battle-field.  Nn^^vj^vifttpH  ^firf!  in 
regard__to_.slaver^^  Events  alone  were  to 
decide.  That  side  was  to  win  which  with 
in  a  certain  time  could  bring  the  greatest 
number  of  followers  into  the  Territory. 
Under  these  conditions  the  North  took  up 
the  fight,  and  its  great  superiority  was 
soon  demonstrated.  But  the  South  con 
trived  to  find  crutches  on  which  to  support 
its  weakened  limbs.  On  election  days 
hundreds  of  "  roughs,"  armed  to  the  teeth, 
poured  into  the  Territory  from  the  Missouri 
'  border,  cast  as  many  ballots  as  they  pleased 
into  the  ballot  boxes,  from  which  they 
scared  away  the  real  squatters  by  threats 

or  open  violence,  and  won  in  this  way  an  ~ 

J 
easy  and  brilliant  victory.     As  the  federal 


70  John  Brown. 

executive  had  pledged  itself  body  and  soul 
to  the  slave-holders,  the  only  recourse  of 
the  champions  of  freedom  was  to  oppose 
violence  with  violence.  \_Neither  right  nor 
policy  could  decide  the  question  whether 
the  Territory  should  belong  to  the  demo 
cratic  republic  of  free  labor  or  should  be 
handed  over  to  barbarism  under  the  Mo 
loch  of  slavery.  The  freebooters  of  the 
"  party  of  law  and  order,"  led  by  a  former 
Vice-President  of  the  Union,  proved  by 
means  of  bowie-knives,  revolvers,  shot 
guns,  and  even  cannon  that  "  slavery  is  the 
broadest  and  surest  foundation  for  a  free 
existence  ;  "  and  th§  JFree-Soil  men  proved 
with  the  same  arguments  that  the  people 
of  the  North  had  not  yet  completely  lost 
their  common-sense  and  their  manliness 
in  the  voluptuous  embrace  of  the  strumpet 
slavery,  and  under  the  poisonous  breath  of 
her  burning  kisses.  The  "  irrepressible 
conflict "  between  slavery  and  freedom  was 


John  Brown.  71 

carried  from  the  forum  of  absolute  right  to 
the  judgment  seat  of  the  God  of  battles; 
but  the  God  of  battles  in  the  civilized 
world  of  Christianity  is  the  God  of  right 
eousness  also,  the  God  of  truth,  the  God 
of  moral  principles,  and  the  God  of  free 
dom.  For  eighty  years  the  opposing  spirits 
had  fought,  and  now  the  personal  encoun 
ter  was  to  begin.  North  and  South  triecT 
their  strength  on  the  soil  of  Kansas  ;  and  a 
civil  war  arose  as  fruitful  of  baseness  and 
horror  as  any  civil  war  of  other  times. 
But  the  people  of  the  North  found  their 
better  selves  again  in  the  blood  which 
drenched  the  soil  of  Kansas.  They  awoke 
once  more  to  the  consciousness  that  laws 
exist  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  laws, 
and  that  the  nation  was  bound  neither  in 
the  eyes  of  man  nor  in  the  eyes  of  God  to 
allow  itself  to  be  politically  and  morally 
ruined  for  the  sake  of  the  laws.  As  citi 
zens,  as  members  of  the  political  commu- 


72  John  Brown. 

nity,  they  could  no  longer  come  to  an 
understanding  as  to  law  and  right ;  and  as 
men  —  as  men  in  whose  hearts  and  brains 
there  was  yet  a  spark  of  the  divine  spirit — 
they  bade  the  citizen  draw  back.  Yea,  they 
rose  up  in  rebellion  against  him.  and  cut 
with  the  sword  the  knot  which  law  and 
right  could  no  longer  unravel. 

It  was  in  December,  1855.  A  large 
armed  force,  consisting  mostly  of  Missouri- 
ans,  but  nevertheless  passing  for  Kansas 
militia  and  marching  under  the  authority 
of  the  federal  government,  appeared  before 
Lawrence,  the  principal  town  of  the  Free- 
Soil  men  of  the  territory.  The  townspeople 
prepared  to  resist,  and  their  partisans  from 
the  surrounding  country  hastened  to  bring 
them  aid.  A  small  troop  of  these  auxil 
iaries  attracted  especial  attention.  They 
drove  up  in  front  of  the  Free  States  Hotel 
in  a  lumber-wagon.  Rods  were  fixed  in 
the  sides  of  the  wagon,  and  from  these 


John  Brown.  73 

rods  bayonets  projected  into  the  air.  The 
men  stood  upright  with  improved  rifles  in 
their  hands,  and  their  belts  bristling  with 
well-selected  weapons.  Four  were  young, 
one  or  two  were  scarcely  more  than  boys  ; 
in  their  midst  stood  a  man  fifty-five  years 
old.  John  Brown  and  four  sons —  two 
others  had  to  remain  behind  for  the  time 
on  account  of  sickness — came  at  the  call 
of  the  Lord  of  hosts  to  fight  out  a  life-and* 
death  struggle  with  slavery,  —  "  the  sum 
all  iniquities."  He  was  almost  six  feet  high, 
and  slender  rather  than  stout.  His  body, 
though  not  broad  in  the  shoulders,  told  of 
unusual  strength.  The  muscles  and  sin 
ews  seemed  to  be  woven  with  threads  of 
iron.  The  hair,  which  had  grown  gray 
with  years,  stood  up  in  a  dense  mass  above 
the  high  forehead,  which  retreated  some 
what  in  its  upper  part.  Two  deep  furrows, 
telling  of  thought  and  cares,  ran  down  be 
tween  the  bushy  eyebrows  to  the  strong, 


74  John  Brown. 

curved  nose.  The  thick,  full  beard  could  not 
conceal  the  firm  closing  of  the  lips  of  the 
broad  mouth.  The  large  clear  eyes  seemed 
to  change  color  from  the  intensity  of  the 
fire  that  glowed  in  them,  —  sometimes  they 
appeared  light  blue  ;  sometimes  dark  gray, 
sometimes  black.  When  he  hastened  on 
with  a  rapid  and  remarkably  energetic  gait, 
making  room  for  no  one  that  he  met,  his 
head  would  be  slightly  bent  forward  and 
his  eye  cast  down,  as  though  he  were  lost 
in  serious  thought.  But  his  eyes  seemed 
to  pierce  to  the  uttermost  depths  when  he 
fixed  them  on  a  face  ;  and  if  the  enemy 
was  near,  they  turned  restlessly  hither  and 
thither,  as  though  no  point  of  the  horizon 
should  escape  them  for  even  a  single 
mojnent. 

I     The  man  had  led  a  busy  and  agitated 

fife;    but  he  had  never  come  into  public 

hotice.    Finding  pleasure  in  his  calling,  he 

/devoted  himself  to  it  quietly  but  with  great 


John  Brown.  75 

activity.  He  was  no  dreamer,  and  not 
even  an  enthusiast  in  the  ordinary  sense 
of  the  word.  An  American  through  and 
through,  Nature  had  formed  him  for 
vigorous  work,  and  the  vicissitudes  of  his 
life  had  developed  his  natural  inclination 
to  a  high  degree.  The  man  of  flesh  and 
bone  led  a  life  such  as  thousands  and 
thousands  of  Americans,  left  to  shift  for 
themselves  almost  from  the  cradle,  still 
lead  to-day ;  but  the  man  whom  God  had 
chosen  as  a  mortal  vessel  for  his  immortal 
spirit,  led  alongside  of  this  life  another,  of 
which  very  few  outside  of  his  family  cir 
cle  knew  anything,  and  they  had  only  a 
faint  idea  of  it.  The  sandy  sea-shore  pre 
sents  year  after  year  the  same  appearance, 
though  mighty  waves  may  rush  foaming 
over  it  ever  so  often ;  but  the  paths  which 
the  trickling  stream  makes  for  itself  in 
the  hidden  recesses  of  the  cliffs  remain, 
even  though  no  human  eye  sees  them,  and 


76  John  Brown. 

the  parched  wanderer  in  the  burning  sun 
light  asks  perhaps  chidingly  why  Nature 
gives  the  barren  rock  no  water.  The 
Brown  whom  neighbors  and  friends  had 
known  for  half  a  century,  had  bravely 
tossed  about  on  the  stormy  sea  of  Ameri 
can  business  life,  but  the  waters  had  gone 
as  they  had  come.  That  which  was  to 
make  of  him  a  figure  in  the  world's  his 
tory  lay  unnoticed  and  mostly  unknown  in 
the  quiet  depths  of  his  soul.  The  deed  of 
his  life  sprang  from  a  spirit  as  guileless, 
as  pure,  as  true,  and  as  unselfish  as  that  of 
a  child;  but  it  was  performed  by  a  man 
whose  every  fibre  had  been  steeled  by  the 
stern  discipline  of  life,  and  whose  inner 
being  was  so  absolutely  ruled  by  the  cat 
egorical  imperative  that  his  will  could 
neither  be  broken  nor  bent.  Tender  and 
soft  as  a  girl  who  nestles  in  her  mother's 
lap,  and  yet  every  inch  a  man ;  as  igno 
rant  of  the  power  of  actual  facts  as  a  her-j 


John  Brown.  77 

mit  in  the  desert,  and  at  the  same  time 
wonderfully  fitted  by  nature  and  training 
to  seize  the  best  chance  at  first  sight  under 
the  most  difficult  circumstances,  and  to 
accomplish  the  most  with  the  smallest 
means ;  illogical  as  a  child,  and  yet  follow 
ing  his  own  path  as  steadily  as  the  sun ; 
with  a  horror  of  fighting,  and  yet  offer 
ing  up  himself  and  his  family  in  an  insane 
war  against  the  whole  nation ;  so  tender 
hearted  that  he  stakes  and  loses  his  own 
life  and  the  life  of  his  followers,  of  his 
sons-in-law  and  sons,  merely  to  save  a  few 
strangers  from  their  anxiety  lest  the  train 
with  their  relatives  should  not  arrive  at 
the  right  time,  and  at  the  same  time  so 
terribly  stern  that  he  unconditionally  ap 
proves  a  horrible  five-fold  murder;  never 
excited  to  revenge  even  by  the  worst  injus 
tice  exercised  toward  himself  and  toward 
those  dearest  to  him, 'but  goaded  on  to 
such  a  rage  by  the  wrong  done  to  the 


78  John  Brown. 

negro  slaves  that  he  recklessly  trangresses 
all  positive  law  and  only  recognizes  as 
binding  what  he  considers  to  be  God's 
command, — such  is  the  portraitj^Lthe  first 
man_vvho  diQdJ^^iQ^hsind^oi  the  execu- 
\tioner  for  a  political  crime  in  the  United 


John  Brown  was  born  in  Torrington, 
Litchfield  County,  Conn.,  on  the  gih  of 
May,  iSoo.1  His  pedigree  can  be  traced 
without  a  single  break  back  to  Peter 
Brown,  a  joiner,  and  one  of  the  "  Pilgrim 
Fathers "  whom  the  Mavflower  landed  at 
Plymouth  Rock  on  the  22d  of  December, 
1620.  His  grandfather  John  died  a  cap 
tain  in  the  army  of  the  Revolution  Sept. 
3,  1776,  and  his  maternal  grandfather 
also  served  in  the  same  army.  Owen 
Brown,  the  father  of  the  martyr,  moved  in 

1  Not  as  Kapp  thinks  (John  Brown  aus  und  iiber  Amer- 
ika,  ii.  p.  121),  in  northeastern  New  York.  See  Brown's 
Autobiography,  printed  in  Redpath's  The  Public  Life  of 
Capt.  John  Brown,  p.  24. 


John  Brown.  79 

1805  to   Hudson,  Ohio,  at  that  time  one  of 
the  most  remote  Western  settlements. 

The  boy  soon  lost  his  fear  of  the  sneak 
ing  redskins.  When  but  six  years  old 
he  wandered  fearlessly  through  the  wil 
derness  barefoot  and  bareheaded,  with  his 
"  leather  trousers  held,"  as  he  writes,  "  some 
times  by  two  suspenders  and  sometimes 
by  one."  The  fare  was  scanty,  and  in 
struction  scantier  still,  but  in  the  midst  of 
hard  work  and  the  rough  games  of  his 
few  comrades,  his  body  was  steeled  and 
his  wit  grew  keen  in  the  school  of  "  help 
yourself."  His  reading  was  as  yet  none  of 
the  best,  and  he  wrote  but  a  sorry  hand ; 
yet  the  twelve-year-old  boy  at  the  time  of 
the  second  war  with  England  drove  alone 
large  herds  of  cattle  through  the  wilder 
ness  to  camp,  a  hundred  miles  and  more 
away.  During  onje  of  these  expeditions, 
he  was  extremely  well  received  at  a  slave 
holder's,  who  made  much  of  the  bold 


8o  John  Brown. 

knowing  boy  before  his  guests.  He  re 
mained,  however,  insensible  to  the  praise 
bestowed  upon  him,  because  of  his  indig 
nation  at  the  harsh  way  in  which  the  host 
treated  his  negro  boy.  He  explained 
afterward  that  this  occurrence  had  made 
an  Abolitionist  of  him  and  had  made  him 
"  swear  eternal  war  on  slavery." 

It  was  not  merely  his  own  innate  feel 
ings  that  produced  in  him  a  profound 
aversion  to  slavery.  However  faulty  his 
education  had  been  as  a  whole,  it  was 
thorough  in  one  respect,  —  he  knew  the 
/  Bible  better  than  many  a  minister  of  the 
Vjgospel,  and  he  had  learned  to  read  it  with 
all  the  grim  puritanic  earnestness  which 
for  more  than  two  centuries  had  filled  his 
race.  Although  he  had  never  forgotten  it, 
yet  three  and  forty  years  went  by  before  he 
entered  upon  the  literal  fulfilment  of  the 
oath  which  he  had  sworn  as  a  boy.  He 
always  bore  witness  fearlessly  when  occa- 


John  Brown.  81 

sion  offered;  but  it  was  for  the  Lord  to 
designate  the  hour  at  which  thought 
should  be  transformed  into  action.  If 
there  ever  was  a  sect  of  Christianity  who 
adopted  equally  the  gospel  of  love  of  the 
New  Testament  and  the  stern  severity  of 
the  Old  Testament  spirit  in  all  its  terri 
ble  grandeur,  the_Puritans  were  that  sect^ 
and  if  ever  a  Puritan  exemplified  the  weld 
ing  together  of  these  opposite  principles 
in  his  whole  life,  and  in  each  and  every 
act,  John_J3rown  was  Jthat  J^uritan.__  He 
was  the  man  of  the  old  covenant,  who 
waited  quietly  and  patiently  to  gird  about 
his  loins  "  the  sword  of  Gideon"  till  a  sign 
from  God  gave  the  order.  And  how  in 
the  nineteenth  century  and  in  one  of  the 
foremost  of  civilized  States  could  that 
sword  be  a  weapon  suitable  for  the  hand 
of  a  boy,  or  even  for  the  grip  of  a  man, 
who  had  not  yet  drunk  deep  of  the  bitter 
dregs  of  the  cup  of  life  ?  A  youth  could, 


82  John  Brown. 

indeed,  have  called  the  slaves  to  rebellion, 
but  the  world  in  the  most  favorable  case 
would  have  looked  upon  him  as  an  object 
of  pity,  who  ought  already  to  have  been 
placed  in  an  insane  asylum.  \What  alone 
caused  Brown's  deed  to  produce  such  a 
powerful  and  ever  increasing  effect  North 
and  South,  was  the  fact  that  he  held  as 
a  sacred  tenet  from  first  to  last,  without 
a  second's  doubting,  the  belief  that  he 
was  God's  chosen  bearer  of  the  sword  of 
Gideon ;  but  in  order  that  such  a  belief 
should  be  awe-inspiring  and  not  ridicu 
lous,  but  should  be  fearful,  it  must  be 
held  by  a  man  on  whose  head  lay  the  snow 
of  age,  in  whose  veins  the  blood  coursed 
slowly  and  evenly,  and  who  could  point  to 
a  long  life  as  to  an  irrefutable  proof  that 
he  was  as  cool  as  ice  and  as  completely 
the  master  of  his  five  senses  as  any  man. 

Already,  as   a  ten-year-old  boy,   Brown 
let   it  be  seen  clearly  that  it  was  not  in 


John  Brown.  83 

his  power  to  enjoy  the  bright  sides  of  life. 
The  few  books  which  he  could  get  hold 
of,  and  from  which  he  mostly  got  his  edu 
cation,  were  of  a  serious  sort,  and  he  began 
to  prefer  the  society  of  older  men  to  that 
of  his  comrades.  Light  talk,  even  when  it 
was  entirely  inoffensive,  was  distasteful  to 
him.  He  touched  neither  tobacco,  cards, 
nor  alcoholic  drinks  as  long  as  he  lived ; 
yet  he  was  not  a  "  crank,"  and  did  not  pass 
for  such.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  so  highly 
esteemed  that  it  became  a  second  nature 
with  him  to  speak  with  a  tone  of  absolute 
authority.  He  always  carried  through  to 
the  end  whatever  he  undertook.  He  gave 
up  his  purpose  of  becoming  a  minister  of 
the  gospel  only  because  his  eyes  would 
not  stand  the  strain  of  continued  study. 
He  went  back  to  business,  tried  various 
things  in  different  States,  and  what  he 
accomplished  was  always  satisfactory  and 
often  excellent.  He  became  a  good  tanner 


84  John  Brown. 

under  his  father's  guidance ;  his  sheep- 
raising  was  a  model  for  the  whole  neigh 
borhood;  in  the  wool-trade  he  introduced 
the  important  graduation  of  wool,  and  as 
a  cattle-raiser,  he  sent,  in  1850,  to  an  agri 
cultural  show  a  variety  of  the  celebrated 
Devonshire  "  Short-horns,"  whose  beauty 
caused  a  great  sensation  among  the  whole 
farming  population.  The  business  enter 
prises  at  the  head  of  which  he  stood  were 
often  important  and  prosperous.  But  Fate, 
which  had  destined  him  for  something 
greater,  seemed  to  watch  with  anxious 
jealousy  lest  the  elasticity  of  his  muscles 
and  the  proud  energy  of  his  will  should 
relax  in  the  midst  of  ease  and  comfort. 
He  lost  again  and  again  his  painfully  ac 
quired  property,  partly  through  unfortu 
nate  accidents,  and  partly  through  the 
machinations  of  business  friends  who  cared 
more  for  profit  than  for  what  was  just  and 
fair,  and  for  whom  the  stern  righteousness 


Brown.  85 

of  the  Puritan  was  an  obstacle.  He  lost, 
however,  what  was  dearer  than  money  or 
estate.  His  first  wife  died  in  August, 
1832,  and  in  September,  1843,  he  buried 
three  sons  on  the  same  day.  Of  the  nine-* 
teen  children  whom  his  two  wives  bore 
him  eight  alone  survived  their  father. 

After  the  failure  of  his  wool  business  in  [ 
Springfield,  Mass.,  Brown  moved,  in  1845,  ( 
to  North  Elba  in  Essex  County,  New  York. 
The  years  he  spent  there  as  a  farmer 
were  the  night-watch  preparatory  to  the 
deed  which  was  to  shage__the  course  of 
the  world's  history.  ^^mj^Sn^^one  of 
the  most  distinguished  (^bolitionisj$  and 
most  high-minded  philanthropists,  had  set 
apart  a  portion  of  his  extensive  possessions 
in  this  part  of  the  State  of  New  York  to 
found  a  colony  for  free  colored  people. 
Brown  offered  to  live  among  the  negroes 
as  their  fatherly  friend  and  adviser,  and 
Smith  joyfully  accepted  the  offer.  The 


86  John  Brown. 

undertaking  did  not  succeed  for  various 
reasons,  but  more  especially  owing  to  the 
rascalities  of  a  surveyor.  Here,  however, 
in. the  midst  of  the  severe  stillness  of  the 
Adirondacks,  which  assume  at  this  point 
the  character  of  a  mighty  range  of  rocky 
mountains,  the  spirit  of  Brown  gazed  more 
and  more  into  its  own  depths.  During 
the  long  winter  evenings  there  was  plenty 
of  time  for  reading  the  Bible  and  for 
earnest  conversation  and  thought  in  the 
simple  shabby-looking  farmhouse.  His 
numerous  family  and  his  warm  friends,  the 
Thompsons,  listened  devoutly  to  the  words 
of  the  experienced,  storm-tried  man,  full 
of  childlike  simplicity.  And  when  at  last 
the  sign  came  for  which  he  had  watched 
so  long,  he  had  poured  out  his  own  spirit 
in  such  wealth  among  this  band,  which 
crowded  around  him  in  really  patriarchal 
simplicity  and  devotion,  that  the  men  fol 
lowed  him  without  his  commanding  or  re- 


John  Brown.  87 

questing  them  to  do  so,  as  though  it  were 
a  matter  of  course,  and  the  women  did  not 
seek  to  hold  them  back  by  a  single  look  of 
entreaty. 

The  treason  against  Kansas,  committed 
by  the  weak-kneed,  the  self-seeking,  and 
the  corrupt  politicians,  although  the  State 
had  been  pledged  to  freedom  for  all  time 
by  the  fathers,  was  the  sign  long  waited 
for  by  Brown  that  it  was  time  for  him 
to  stand  up  and  take  his  rifle.  As  early! 
as  1854  his  four  eldest  sons  decided  to 
move  to  Kansas.  The  way  in  which  they 
went  to  work  to  carry  out  their  resolution  \ 
leaves  no  doubt  that  they  intended  to  se 
tlej)ermanently  jntheTemtory  ;  EulTKapp 


is  mistaken  when  he  says  (p.  122),  that 
the  father  too  moved  to  Kansas  as  a  peace 
ful  farmer.1  Accompanied  by  two,  or  as 

1  On  the  1  8th  of  February,  1857,  Brown  told  the  Mas 
sachusetts  Legislature  that  he  had  been  summoned  with 
six  sons  and  a  son-in-law  to  defend  Lawrence,  in  May, 
1856. 


88  John  Brown. 

some  have  it,  three  other  sons,  he  followed 
the  call  of  his  children,  who  had  suffered 
from  the  Missouri  border  ruffians,  and 
begged  their  father  to  hasten  to  their  aid 
with  arms.  In  the  first  informal  exami 
nation  to  which  Brown  was  subjected  in 
prison,  by  Governor  Wise  and  Senator 
Mason,  of  Virginia,  and  Vallandigham  of 
Ohio,  he  said :  "  Four  of  my  sons  had  gone 
;there  [to  Kansas]  as  squatters,  and  they 
were  the  occasion  of  my  going  there.  I 
did  not  go  to  settle,  but  on  account  of  the 
difficulties."1 

^rown  went  to  Kansas  in  order  to  drive 
jthe  partisans  of  slavery  from  the  soil  to 
|vhich  they  had  no  right,  by  means  of 
powder  and  shot.  He  was  accordingly 
Very  much  displeased  at  having  come  to 
JLawrence  with  his  four  sons  for  nothing, 

I  X 

Because  the  leading  men  of  the  place  pre- 

1  The  Life,  Trial,  and  Execution  of  Capt.  John  Brown, 
p.  45- 


John  Brown.  89 

lerred  a  slothful  peace  to  a  bold  strugglel  j 
The  latter,  on  the  other  hand,  looked  with 
I  anxious  distrust  on  the  grim  old  man,  in 
j  whose  vocabulary  the  word  "compromise" 
ihad  no  place,  and  who  knew  of  only  one 
jargument  that  would  carry  the  day,  and 
Ithat  was  bloodshed. 

The  old  man  was  right  -;  the  wise  politi- 

/ 

cians  were  over-wise,  vjhere  was  no  pos 
sibility  of  keeping  on  a  good  footing  with 
the  law,  because  the  executors  of  the  law 
knew  no  other  compelling  power  than  that 
which  forced  them  to  obey  the  slave-hold 
ers^/  It  was  subjection  or  war;  there  was 
no  mean  between  the  two  extremes.  And 
Brown  saw  that  if  the  decision  was  war, 
it  could  not  be  the  sort  of  war  in  which 
Grotius  and  Vattel  would  be  always  con 
scientiously  consulted.  If  the  enemy  acted 
in  accordance  with  the  maxim  that  he  who 
shot  first  and  best  was  in  the  right,  he  too 
claimed  the  right  to  act  according  to  the 


90  John  Brown. 

same  principle  where  it  was  necessary.  A 
God-fearing  man,  he  yet  did  not  shrink 
from  executing  the  code  of  Judge  Lynch 
in  all  its  horror.  After  the  Kansas  clays 
wTere  past,  some  one  asked  him  once,  speak 
ing  of  one  of  the  worst  partisans  of  slavery, 
"  Well,  Captain,  Judge  Lecompte  would 
have  had  a  hard  time  of  it,  I  guess,  if  the 
Lord  had  delivered  him  into  your  hands  ?  " 
The  judge  would  doubtless  have  felt  his 
blood  curdle  if  he  had  heard  the  quiet, 
laconic  answer,  "It  would  have  taken  the 
Lord  himself  to  tear  him  out  of  them 
again."  It  is  at  bottom  only  owing  to  a 
fortunate  accident  that  his  memory  is  not 
stained  with  a  sort  of  court-martial  execu- 
.  tion./  Five  members  of  the  slave-holders' 
%party,  who  had  committed  great  brutalities 
against  Free-Soil  people,  and  had  warned 
them  that  if  they  should  not  have  left  the 
Territory  within  a  given  time  they  would 
be  hanged,  were  pulled  out  of  their  beds 


John  Brown.  91 

and  put  to  death  not  far  from  Pottawato-/ 

niaki:  ryMVffly  ^frl^fe^r      SevJ 


eral  witnesses  declared  that  Brown  was  the) 
leader  of  this  band  of  combined  prosefr 
cutors,  judges,  and  executors.1  It  was 
natural  to  think  that  he  was  the  originator 
of  the  bloody  deed,  as  he  and  his  sons 
were  among  those  wrho  had  been  threat 
ened  with  the  hangman's  rope,  and  as  it 
was  his  daughter  and  daughter-in-law  who 
had  received  from  the  tongues  and  hands 
of  the  roughs,  fighting  for  "law  and  order," 
specimens  of  the  renowned  "chivalry  "of 
the  South.  The  accusation  was  therefore 
perhaps  brought  in  good  faith,  but  it  was 
false.  Redpath  heard  from  two  of  those 
who  took  part  in  the  murder  that  Brown 
on  that  night  was  twenty-five  miles  away 
with  one  of  his  sons.  Brown  acknowl 
edged  this  at  a  later  period  to  his  future 
biographer,  but  added,  "  Take  heed,  how- 

1  Congressional  Globe,  XXXVI.  Cong.,  I  Sess..  p   105. 


92  John  Brown. 

ever,  that  I  do  not  say  this  in  order  to 
throw  guilt  off  from  myself;  although  my 
hand  was  not  engaged,  I  would  have  ad 
vised  the  step  if  I  had  known  the  circum 
stances,  and  I  approved  of  it."1 
„  It  was,  above  all,  this  cool,  reckless  en 
ergy,  which  shrank  from  no  consequences 
of  the  first  step,  that  made  of  Brown  the 
most  dreaded  leader  of  the  men  on  the 
-side-  of the-Eree-Slate  party.  Besides,  he 


had  a  really  remarkable  talent  for  guerilla 
warfare.  It  may  have  been  absurd  of 
him  to  criticise  minutely  Napoleon's  dis 
positions  for  a  battle  ;  but  no  one  under 
stood  better  than  he  how  to  post  a  handful 
of  men  in  a  wood  or  in  a  gorge  so  that 
they  could  keep  in  check  a  force  ten  times 
their  superior,  composed  of  such  heroes 
as  the  Missouri  rangers.  On  the  3Oth  of 
August,  1856,  he  posted  himself  with  about 
thirty  men  in  the  way  of  a  troop  of  from 

1  Redpath,  p.  119. 


Brown.  93 

four  hundred  to  five  hundred  well  armed 
Missourians  who  had  even  brought  cannon 
with  them,  and  did  not  let  them  pass  until 
he  had  killed  more  than  thirty  and  wounded 
about  fifty.  Soon  after,  before  Lawrence 
with  between  forty  and  fifty  men  armed 
with  rifles,  he  prepared  such  a  warm  night 
reception  for  four  hundred  cavalry  that 
not  only  the  latter  retreated,  but  also 
the  force  of  about  two  thousand  men  who 
had  burned  down  Franklin  and  were 
marching  on  Lawrence  thought  good  to 
face  about.  However,  he  understood  not 
only  how  to  make  excellent  use  of  the 
lay  of  the  land,  but  how  to  teach  his 
people  not  to  waste  their  shot.  He 
adopted  both  sides  of  Cromwell's  maxim 


your  trust  in  God,  and  keep_^oiir 
powder  dry."_  He  was  fully  aware  of 
the  worth  of  his  own  moral  superiority 
and  of  that  of  his  people.  He  declared 
that  it  was  foolishness  to  think  that  the 


94  John  Brown. 

square-built  bullies  who  were  the  matadores 
at  tavern  brawls  and  on  the  street,  and 
who  had  primed  themselves  with  brandy, 
were  the  best  material  for  soldiers.  He 
said  that  he  who  defended  a  great  and 
noble  cause,  who  fought  for  his  wife  and 
children,  and  who  trusted  in  God,  could 
stand  against  ten  rapscallions  in  the  pay  of 
hell.  He  put  his  trust  in  God,  and  each 
beat  of  his  pulse  spoke  of  the  sacredness 
of  the  cause  to  which  he  had  devoted  his 
life.  The  day  was  begun  and  ended  with 
prayer  in  his  camp,  and  no  morsel  was 
touched  before  thanks  had  been  rendered 
to  the  Giver  of  all  good  gifts.  Woe  to 
the  man  who  uttered  a  profane  word  in 
his  presence !  Once  some  border  roughs 
whom  he  had  taken  prisoners  were  curs 
ing.  As  they  were  beginning  to  curse 
again  in  spite  of  his  protest,  he  pointed  his 
cocked  revolver  at  them  and  thundered, 
"  Kneel  down  and  pray  !  "  They  knelt 


Brown.  95 

down  and  prayed.  They  had  to  pray 
more  during  the  five  days  they  passed  in 
his  camp  than  they  had  presumably  prayed 
in  their  whole  lives. 

No  one  has  ventured  to  assert  that  this 
stern  piety  was  with  him  an  acquired  habit 
or  even  a  blind.  On  his  return  East,  late 
in  the  autumn  of  1856,  his  opinions  and 
belief  in  his  God-given  mission  were  sub 
jected  to  tests  which  few  would  have  en 
dured.  On  Feb.  18,  1857,  before  a  com 
mittee  of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature 
he  said  :  "  About  the  first  of  September 
(1856),  myself  and  five  sick  and  wounded 
sons  and  a  son-in-law  had  to  lie  on  the 
ground  a  long  time  without  covering  and 
at  times  almost  starved,  and  completely 
thrown  on  the  charity  of  the  above-men 
tioned  Christian  Indian  and  his  wife." 
And  that  was  one  of  the  lesser  trials 
which  he  had  to  stand.  "  Near  Black 
Jack,"  so  ran  his  tale,  "the  Missourians 


96  John  Brown. 

wounded  three  Free-State  men,  —  one  of 
them  was  my  son-in-law  ;  a  few  days  later 
one  of  my  sons  was  wounded  so  that  he 
will  remain  a  cripple  for  life."  After  giv 
ing  a  long  list  of  the  sufferings  of  others 
which  he  had  witnessed,  he  went  on  : 
"  Abandoned  houses  and  corn-fields  were 
to  be  seen  in  almost  every  direction  south 
of  the  Kansas  River. 

"  However,  I  have  not  yet  told  all  that 
I  saw  in  Kansas.  Once  I  saw  three 
mutilated  bodies ;  two  were  dead  and 
one  still  lived,  but  was  riddled  with 
twenty  bullet  holes  and  buck-shot  holes; 
the  two  murdered  men  had  been  lying 
eighteen  hours  on  the  ground,  a  prey  to 
the  flies.  One  of  these  young  men  was 
my  own  son." 

A  clergyman,  Martin  White  by  name, 
boasted  of  having  shot  down  Frederick 
Brown,  who,  thinking  to  meet  friends,  was 
going  on  his  way  peaceably  and  unarmed. 


John  Brown.  97 

This  part  of  his  story  was  hard  for  the 
old  man,  he  could  scarcely  utter  the  words. 
After  a  few  moments,  however,  he  was 
again  calm.  He  had  not  yet  told  the 
worst  that  he  had  to  say.  This  was  the 
chapter  concerning  his  son  John,  which 
he  had  not  committed  to  paper.  It  was 
short  enough  to  be  told  in  a  few  im 
promptu  sentences.  "  Captain  "  Tate,  for 
merly  a  journalist,  now  really  a  wandering 
knight  in  the  service  of  slavery  and  pre 
tending  to  be  in  the  service  of  United- 
States  Marshal  Donaldson  for  the  pur 
pose  of  maintaining  "  law  and  order,"  — 
Captain  Tate  arrested  John  Brown,  Jr., 
and  his  brother  Jason,  while  they  were 
peaceably  attending  to  their  business.  He 
had  no  legal  order  to  arrest  them ;  but  it 
seemed  good  to  him  to  declare  them  guilty 
of  murder  and  high  treason  on  his  own 
responsibility.  They  were  put  into  chains, 
dragged  away,  and  soon  handed  over  to 
7 


98  John  Brown. 

the  United-States  dragoons  under  Captain 
Wood,  who  made  common  cause  with  the 
border  roughs.  The  dragoons  with  their 
horses  drove  the  prisoners,  laden  with 
chains  and  hatless,  many  miles  under  the 
burning  sun.  John  could  not  endure  the 
torture  :  his  mind  got  out  of  joint.1  The 
father  now  asked  the  gentlemen  of  the 
Committee  of  the  Legislature  if  they  wished 
to  see  the  chains ;  they  were  always  with 
him  as  a  memorial,  he  said,  and  were  now 
in  his  hotel.  As  he  was  concluding  his 
report  of  this  episode  with  the  statement 
that  the  treatment  his  son  had  suffered 
had  made  of  him  "  a  madman,  —  yes,  a 
madman,"  his  bronzed  features  trembled 
and  a  tear  stole  over  his  cheek. 

The  man  who,  after  going  through  such 
trials,  still  persevered  in  the  work  which 
he  had  once  for  all  set  himself  to  do,  and 
staked  all  that  he  had  not  yet  lost,  —  such 

1  Phillips'  The  Conquest  of  Kansas,  pp.  332,  333. 


John  Brown.  99 

a  man  must  either  have  been  driven  by  1^' 
thirst  for  revenge,  or  he  must  have  honf- 

L 

estly  taken  himself  for  an  instrument  ii 
God's  hand  which  had  to  do  its  work  with 
out  looking  to  the  right  or  to  the  leit_ 
Kapp  says,  speaking  of  Brown's  career  in 
Kansas,  "  He  takes  up  the  fight  for  the 
right,  and  revenges  himself  as  well  as  he 
can :  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth."  It 
seems  to  me  that  the  expression  "  revenges 
himself  "  is  an  unhappy  one.  True,  his 
motto  was,  "  Eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth," 
but  merely  in  order  to  exercise  justice  and 
to  protect  the  right.  Again  and  again  He"" 
was  asked  in  prison  whether  he  had  wished 
to  revenge  himself  for  the  wrong  suffered 
by  his  sons,  and  after  a  moment  of  deep 
thought  he  always  answered  quietly,  but 
with  the  utmost  positiveness,  that  so  far 
as  he  knew  his  own  inner  thoughts,  this 
feeling  had  never  filled  his  breast.  But 
Brown  was  no  actor,  he  did  not  play  a 


ioo  Jo  Jin  Brown. 

part.  The  idea  of  revenge  is  incompatible 
with  his  whole  being.  The  death  of  his 
sons  caused  him  acute  suffering,  but  it  did 
not  make  him  bitter,  and  it  did  not  turn 
him  from  his  path.  We  shudder  when  we 
read  in  the  Bible  how  Abraham  draws  his 
knife  against  his  son  at  God's  bidding, 
and  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  a  cultivated 
man  of  the  nineteenth  century  could  give 
up  one  after  the  other  of  his  sturdy  sons  — 
with  tears,  it  is  true,  but  without  a  mur 
mur  and  without  the  slightest  hesitation  — 
because  his  "  mission "  required  it.  And 
yet  John  Brown  really  thought  and  felt  in 
this  way. 

Whenever  I  have  stood  among  the  ruins 
of  the  classic  age,  before  a  single  column 
which  had  once  been  one  of  many  to  sup 
port  the  roof  of  a  temple,  I  have  always 
had  a  feeling  as  though  I  stood  before  a 
sort  of  enigma.  This  picture  involuntarily 
came  to  me  while  trying  to  grasp  the  men- 


John  Brown.  101 

tal  and  moral  nature  of  this  remarkable 
man.  In  his  comparisons  he  was  fond  of 
referring  to  the  Bible  accounts  of  Old 
Testament  heroes.  He  bore  the  imprint 
of  their  spirit.  All  who  did  not  believe 
what  they  believed,  were  devoted  to  the 
sword.  In  Brown's  eyes,  the  man  who 
saw  slavery  under  any  other  aspect  than 
that  of  a  moral  wrong,  was  a  heathen. 
His  platform  is  a  narrow  one,  a  very 
narrow  one ;  but  on  this  platform  he 
stands,  towering  up  mightily  in  genuine 
grandeur,  —  a  solitary  pillar  in  this  sober 
world,  with  its  calmly  analytic  thought, 
and  its  broad  and  shallow  thread-bare 
sentiment.  But  how  did  this  representa-  . 
tive  of  a  long-vanished  period  of  civili 
zation  come  into  this  modern  world  of 

§ 

ours  ?  There  is  only  one  explanation. 
Negro  slavery,  as  it  had  developed  in  the 
United  States,  on  the  soil  of  the  most 
democratic  State  in  the  world,  which  in 


iO2y'  John  Brown. 

-• 

all  other  respects  was  even  with  the  times, 
was  itself  so  much  of  an  anachronism  and 
an  anomaly  that  the  whole  history  of  the 
world  cannot  produce  its  fellow. 

So  far  Brown  had  stood  on  the  defen 
sive;  he  had  only  helped  to  defend  Kansas 
from  being  overpowered  by  the  party  of 
the  slave-holders.  His  return  to  the  East 
was  the  decisive  turning-point  in  his  life. 
He  had  not  come  to  seek  rest  and  relaxa 
tion.  He  had  taken  the  final  resolve  to 
assume  the  offensive,  and  he  wished  to 
collect  in  the  East  the  necessary  material 
aid.  He  travelled  about,  knocked  at  many 
doors,  where  he  thought  that  he  could 
Otfunt  not  merely  upon  sympathetic  words, 
but  also  upon  effective  assistance ;  here 
and  there  he  spoke  in  public  meetings ; 
he  even  published  in  the  papers  a  call  for 
assistance.  But  the  contributions  came 
in  very  scantily.  In  a  written  "  Farewell 
to  the  Plymouth  Rocks,  Bunker  Hill  Mon- 


John  Brown.  103 

uments,  Charter  Oaks,  and  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabins,"  he  summons  "  the  glorious  Com 
monwealth  "  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
God,  on  account  of  its  lukewarmness  in 
a  cause  "  in  which  every  man,  woman,  and 
child,  yea,  in  which  the  whole  human  race 
has  a  deep  and  awful  interest."  He  was 
again  on  his  way  to  Kansas  as  early  as 
June,  1857,  but  he  did  not  get  there  till 
November,  because  lack  of  money  forced 
him  to  interrupt  his  journey. 

However,  his  stay  in  the  East  had 
by  no  means  been  barren  of  results. 
He  had  formed  new  connections,  he-  had 
drawn  old  ties  closer,  and  the  object  of 
it  all  was  to  collect  a  small  band  of 
men  who  were  ready  to  burn  their  ships 
and  to  begin  with  him  the  holy  war^-ol 
/ extermination  againsl^&laY^j^.  He  had 


lalready   selected    Harper's    Ferry   as    the 

point  where   the  first  great  blow  was  to 

*'  be    struck.      A  certain    Forbes,  however, 


IO4  John  Brown. 

\  who  was  to  have  been  a  drill-sergeant 
\  for  his  people,  and  who  later  on  betrayed 
1  him,  persuaded  him  for  the  time  to  give 
]up  this  idea.  For  the  present,  Kansas 
Uvas  to  continue  to  be  the  scene  of  his 
//exploits.  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into 
the  details  of  what  he  did  there.  His 
life  was  agitated  enough,  but  he  did  not 
experience  as  many  remarkable  vicissi 
tudes  as  the  first  year.  The  main  thing 
was  the  silent  inward  and  outward  prepa 
ration  for  his  coming  grand  raid  on  Vir 
ginia.  One  event  alone  deserves  special 
mention. 

Brown  carried  "  the  war  into  Africa " 
for  the  first  time  in  December,  1858.  Di 
viding  his  force  into  two  parts,  he  went 
with  his  associates  over  the  borders  of 
Missouri,  freed  eleven  slaves,  and  took 
them  to  Kansas.  The  division  led  by 
his  friend  Kagi  shot  down  a  man  who 
levelled  his  gun  at  the  invaders,  and 


John  Brown.  105 

Brown  took  as  much  money  from  the 
slave-holders  as,  according  to  his  estimate, 
would  suffice  to  pay  for  the  work  which 
the  slaves  had  hitherto  done.  This  char 
acterizes  completely  the  procedure  which 
he  intended  henceforth  to  observe,  f  He 
does  not  at  all  consider  himself  called 
upon  to  punish  the  slave-holders.  He 
merely  wants  to  assist  the  slave  in  getting 
what  is  his  due.  TBut  he  shoots  down  any 
one  who  forcibly  resists  him.  He  only 
added  one  other  point  to  this  programme, 
-at  first  he  lightened  the  purse  of  his  vie-  f 
tims  only  to  make  up  the  wages  which  ' 
were  owing  to  the  slaves ;  later  on  he 
thought  it  just  and  fair  that  they  should 
furnish  him  the  means  to  free  other  slaves. 
This  raid  made  a  great  sensation.  The 
Qx»¥errmy^of^  Mjssojjri  offered  a  reward  of 
$3000,  and  the  President  a  further  reward 
of  $250,  for  the  capture  of  Brown.  But 
he  brought  his  charges  in  good  condition 


io6  John  Brown. 

jto  Canada,  after  putting  to  flight  with  only 

£*~:ght  men,  and  without  firing  a  shot,  more 
an  forty  Missourians  who  pursued  him. 
was  a  natural  and  completely  justifiable 
view  of  the  situation  that  both  sides  con 
sidered  this  event  as  much  more  important 
than  the  biggest  "  battle  "  which  had  been 
fought  in  Kansas.  The  appearance  of  a 
highwayman  armed  to  the  teeth  —  if  I 
may  allow  myself  a  comparison  from  the 
Southern  point  of  view  —  throws  the  whole 
region  into  frightful  excitement,  while  the 
q npajf_Jji i P VP.S,  though  they  may  cause 
much  more  damage,  are  quietly  left  to 
the  local  police,  so  long  as  things  are  not 
carried  quite  too  far.  What  do  the  eleven 
slaves  freed  by  Brown  signify  when  com 
pared  with  the  great  number  of  those 
whom  the  Abolitionists  and  freed  slaves 
had  already  been  conveying  every  year 
for  a  long  time  by  the  so-called  "  under 
ground  railroad,"  to  the  British  posses- 


V 

iafi 


John  Broivn.  107 


'sions?    lit   was    the   fact    that    an    armed 
band  haa  entered  a  slave  State  and  forci- 
jbly  freed  a   number  of   slaves ;    and  this 
I  startled   the  whole  South  like  a  bursting 
|bombshell.  1  It    is    true    that    Southerners 
had  often  allowed  themselves  to  resort  to 
the  most  violent  methods  of  propagating  j 
their  "  peculiar  institution ;  "  but  they  would 
sooner  have  believed  that  the  heavens  were 
falling    than    that    the   Northern  "  dough 
faces  "  and  "  mudsills "  could    return    the 
compliment.      And   they  showed  at  once 
how  very  conscious  they  were  of  the  fact 
that  the  "  peculiar  institution  "  which  they 
called  the  corner-stone  of  their  greatness, 
was    in    reality    sadly    weakening    in    its 
effects.    The  border  counties  of  Missouri  1 
lost  for  some  time  their  craving  for  expe 
ditions    against    Kansas,    and    those   who 
owned  slaves   hastened    to    sell   them  far 
ther  from    the    border.      In    one    district, 
which  at  the    time  of    Brown's  first  raid 


I 


io8  John  Brown. 

had  had  five  hundred  slaves,  there  were 
only  fifty  to  be  found  two  years  later.  It 
was  certainly  easier  to  protect  one's  self 
in  this  way  against  the  old  man  than  to 
earn  the  rewards  that  had  been  offered  for 
him.  And  the  slave-holders  were  right 
in  taking  for  granted  that  he  would  not 
be  satisfied  with  this  one  success.  He 
now  started  an  organization  in  Canada  for 
the  purpose  of  reducing  to  a  system  the 
work  of  freeing  the  slaves,  and  of  accom- 
pli^hing  it  on  a  large  scale. 

A  convention  of  Abolitionists  radical 
enough  to  inspire  Brown  with  confidence, 
was  called  together  with  great  secrecy, 
and  met  in  Chatham,  West  Canada,  on  the 
8th  of  April,  1859.  The  place  of  meeting 
was  a  negro  church,  and  a  colored  clergy 
man,  named  Munroe,  presided.  Brown 
laid  before  the  convention  a  paper  drawn 
up  by  himself  and  entitled,  "  Provisional 
Constitution  and  Ordinances  for  the 


Brown. 


109 


people  of  the  United  States."     Thisdoc-» 
ument  was  a  confused  medley  of  absurd, 
because  absolutely  inapplicable,  forms,  and  t 
of  measures  well   calculated  for   the  end" 
injview,  —  of  sound  common-sense  and  of 
absurd  systematizing ;  of  cool  computation 

over-estimates    of 

the  resources  at  hand ;  of  true,  keen- 
sighted  humanity lmd~of"Teckiess  seventy.  \ 
It  was  absurd  in  itself  that  a  little  band 
of  negroes  and  a  few  white  men  without 
influence  should  secretly  put  their  heads 
together  in  Canada  in  order  to  give  a 
Constitution  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States ;  but  it  was  entirely  rational  to 
create  a  strong  organization  which  had 
fqr^its  object  the  breaking  of  the  chams 
of  the  slaves.  It  was  absurd  for  this  cor 
poral's  guard  of  officers  with  no  troops 
behind  them  to  copy  the  Federal  Con 
stitution  and  to  desire  a  President  with  a 
complete  cabinet,  a  Congress  "  with  not 


Iviio  John  Brown. 

h''ess  than  five,  nor  more  than  ten  mem- 
°bers,"  a  Supreme  Court  and  four  lower 
Courts ;  but  it  was  entirely  sensible  to 
irhppoint  a  supreme  commander ;  that  is,  to 
f  place  all  the  means  available  in  the  hands 
of  one  man.  It  was  hard  that  all  those 
who  willingly  kept  slaves,  all  enemies,  and 
all  who  assisted  the  enemy,  should  have 
all  they  possessed  taken  away  from  them, 
*'  wherever  found,  whether  in  free  or  in 
slave-holding  States."  But  in  the  case  of 
these  fanatics  the  fact  deserves  to  be  ac 
knowledged,  that  they  would  recognize 
any  kind  of  neutrality,  that  they  promised 
not  to  execute  any  prisoner  without  a  fair 
trial,  and  j._verdict  of  the  court  strictly 
forbade  all  useless  destruction  of  property, 
and  would  not  unnecessarily  wound  th£ 
feelings  of  the  defeated  enemy  even  with 
a  single  word.  This  plan  was  probably 
intended  for  moral  effect  on  the  emanci 
pated  negroes,  to  hold  them  under  some 


John  Brown.  1  1  1 

restraint  during  confusion.  It  was  a  piece 
oj  insanity,  in  the  literal  sense  of  the  word 
to  create  such  a  government  and  to  want 
to  carry  onsuch  a  war,  and  yet  to  declare 
that  there  was  no  intention  of  overthrowing 
thg_  .state  or  federal  government  ;  but 
it  showed  tkaXjn__a  few  instances  the  con 
spirators  saw  farther  than  their  noses, 
that  they  would  not  be  content  with  the 
freeing  of  the  slaves,  but  promised  also  to 
look  out  for  the  bringing  together  again 
<rf  separated  families,  for  schools  and  even 
for  the  furtherance  of  "  personal  cleanli- 
ness."-  The  plan  was  so  nonsensical  that 
it  was  an  unseemly  piece  of  pleasantry  on 
the  part  of  the  Attorney-General  to  accuse 
Brown  later  of  high  treason,  and  on  the 
'part  of  the  jury  to  declare  him  guilty,  be 
auge~rrriad  set  u  a  overnment  ofhi 


up  a  government  ofhis 


ojvnbymeans  of  this  "  Provisional  Con 
stitution."  But  the  fact  that  a  society 
'iad  been  formed  which  practically  in- 


1  1  2  John  Brown. 


means  to  a  supreme  com- 


Qrnander  (whatever  powers  were  given  on 
^paper  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and 
iito  Congress),  and  that  John  Brown  was 
<  unanimously  chosen  supreme  comrnander, 
—  this  fact  was  important  enough. 

An    ill-boding   sultriness    filled    the  air 

of  the  whole  Commonwealth.     The  deci 

sion  of  the  Supreme   Court  in  the  Qj:ed 

•Scott  Case,  which  opened   to  slavery  the 

i  Whole    territorial   domain    of    the    Union, 

;was    a    dearly    bought    victoryforthe 

*  South.     The  just  exasperation  of  the  Re 

publicans  spurred  them    on    to    increased 

efforts,  while  the  split  in  the  Democratic 

party  made  ceaseless  and   rapid  progress. 

President    Buchanan    presented    daily    a 

more  pitiful  spectacle  of  moral  wretched 

ness  ;  daily  it  seemed  more  probable  that 

the  Republicans  would  carry  the  next  pre 

sidential  election  ;  and  constantly  did  the 

Southern   Hotspurs   declare   that   the  day 


John  Brown.  113 

on  which  a  Republican  was  chosen  Presi 
dent  would  be  the  last  day  of  the  Union. 

Who,  at  this  stage  of  affairs,  would 
have  thought  of  the  bold  leader  of  vol- 
Jnteers  during  the  times  of  "bleeding 
Kansas"?  In  the  United  States  more 
than  anywhere  else,  people  live  in  the 
present,  and  Brown  was  not  at  all  anxious 
to  remind  the  public  of  his  existence. 
Diligently,  but  with  the  greatest  secrecy, 
|;he  made  his  preparations. 

In  the  State  of  Virginia,  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Potomac,  lies  the  town  of 
Harper's  Ferry,  which  Brown  had  had  in 
mind  years  before.  Brown  wanted  to  ex 
plode  his  first  bio;  mine  in  Virginia,  Be 
cause  this  State  had  always  held  in  the 
South  the  leading  position,  although  the 
centre  of  the  slave-holders'  power  lay  in 
the_cotton  States,  where  the  radical  wing 
of  the  party  was  consequently  strongest. 
AndBrown  had  chosen  Harper's  Ferry  as 

""""  8 


1 1 4  John  Brown. 

rthe  centre  of  operations,  partly  because 
there  was  an  important  United-States 
Arsenal  in  the  place,  and  partly  because 
it  lay  near  the  mo«-t^tains,  which  offered 
hjgi#gspta~ces  eiTcrugJi,  and  many  points 
which  a  band  of  resolute  men  could  easily 
defend  against  a  superior  force.  The 
choice  of  just  this  place  was  therefore  by 
no  means  so  unfortunate  and  so  unwise 
as  has  often  been  asserted. 

Toward  the  end  of  June  there  appeared 
at  Harper's  Ferry  a  "  Mr.  Smith  "  and  his 
two  sons,  who  came,  as  they  said,  to  look 
for  a  farm,  being  tired  of  farming  in  west 
ern  New  York,  where  the  frosts  had 
repeatedly  destroyed  the  crops.  The 
stranger,  who  presented  a  striking  appear 
ance  by  reason  of  his  long  beard,  hired 
the  Kennedy  farm  after  looking  about  a 
little.  When  he  had  taken  possession, 
a  few  other  men  joined  him,  one  by  one. 
The  neighbors  wondered  a  little  that  the 


John  Brown.  115 

new-comers  did  not  seem  to  have  any 
regular  occupation,  and  that,  though  they 
often  went  into  the  mountains  to  hunt, 
they  never  brought  home  any  game.  They 
remarked  also  that  large  chests  were  re 
peatedly  brought  into  the  quiet  house. 
But  as  the  occupants  paid  for  everything 
in  cash,  and  showed  themselves  friendly, 
helpful  neighbors,  they  were  not  troubled 
by  curious  intruders,  and  no  heed  was 
given  to  the  strangers  who  often  dropped 
in  upon  them. 

On  the  night  of  October  16,  the  pict 
ure  changed  as  though  by  magic.  The 
game  which  Smith  was  out  after,  fell  into 
his  hands  without  having  cost  him  a  grain 
of  powder.  ^  No  shot  had  been  fired,  no 
cry  had  broken  the  stillness  of  the  night, 
and  yet  Brown  was  in  possession  of  the  ar- 
senal^guards  occupied  the  railroad  bridge 
which  leads  to  the  Maryland  shore  of  the 
river,  the  faithful  Kagi  was  bringing  in 


n6  John  Brown. 

as  a  prisoner  Colonel  Washington,  whom 
he  had  captured  with  his  arms  and  ne 
groes,  the  watchmen  were  safely  locked 
up  in  the  watch  house,  the  telegraph  wires 
were  cut,  and  the  rails  torn  up.  Even  the 
first  shot  at  midnight  failed  to  alarm  the 
slumbering  town.  It  was  fired  at  a  watch 
man  who  had  come  to  relieve  the  watch 
at  the  railroad  bridge,  and  who,  on  being 
summoned  to  surrender,  ran  off.  It  was 
only  when  the  train  which  arrived  a  little 
after  one  o'clock  could  not  get  through, 
that  the  sleepers  were  roughly  made  aware 
that  something  extraordinary  was  going 
on.  The  railroad  officials  of  the  train, 
who  wanted  to  cross  the  bridge  on  foot, 
turned  round  at  sight  of  the  levelled  rifles. 
A  man  trying  to  follow  the  example  of 
the  watchman,  who  had  luckily  escaped,  fv 
was  shot  down.  It  was  a  bad  omen  that'; 
in  this  foolhardy  war,  undertaken  for  the  | 
slaves,  the  first  man  who  fell  at  the  hands  r 

\l 


John  Brown.  1 1 7 

of  the  insurgents  was  a  negro.I  But  this 
was  not  all.  Brown's  moderate  command 
had  been  transgressed.  He  had  ended 
his  last  speech  to  his  people  with  the 
words :  "iD^  not  take  a  human  life  if  you 
can  by  any  means  avoid  it,  but  if  you  must 
take  another's  life  to  save  your  own,  then 
aim  well."  j  He  repelled  afterward  the  ac 
cusation  of  murder  with  the  assertion  that 
he  only  made  use  of  his  weapons  in  self- 
defence.  The  killing  of  this  negro  was 
brought  up  against  him,  and  he  had  to  be 
responsible  for  all  that  his  associates  had 
done,  even  against  his  orders. 

But  whatever  may  be  attributed  to  the 
mistakes  of  his  associates,  it  was  undoubt 
edly  Brown  who  brought  down  destruc 
tion  upon  himself.  He  sealed  his  fate  by 
accompanying  the  train  over  the  bridge 
toward  morning,  allowing  it  to  proceed  on 
its  way,  and  yet  going  back  quietly  into 
the  buildings  he  had  seized.  Steam  and 


1 1 8  John  Brown. 

electricity  carried  in  a  few  hours  the  as 
tounding  news  to  the  uttermost  borders  of 
the  country.  Armed-bodies-of  men  marched 
against  him  from  all  sides,  —  not  merely 
_.the. ..militia  of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  but 
also  regular  troops  of  the  Federal  army,  - 
and  he  remained  motionless  at  his  post 
with  his  sixteen  white  men  and  five  ne 
groes.  Did  he  believe  that  the  hosts  of 
heaven  would  descend  to  cleave  for  him, 
with  their  flaming  swords,  a  broad  path 
through  the  ranks  of  the  swarming  enemy, 
who  had  it  in  their  power  to  surround 
Harper's  Ferry  so  closely  that  not  a  mouse 
could  escape  ?  This  he  did  not  believe, 
however  positively  he  assumed  that  the 
arm  of  the  Lord  was  above  him.  Was  he 
obliged  to  remain  ?  No ;  he  was  still  com 
pletely  master  of  the  situation.  Though 
his  company  had  only  twenty-two  rifles 
all  told,  the  inhabitants  of  the  place  were 
so  paralyzed  by  fear  that  he  could  have 


John  Brown.  121 

number  of  friends  from  the  United  States 
and  from  Canada  were  to  have  joined 
|  Brown,  but  the  news  that  Forbes  had 
warned  the  President  drove  him  to  imme- 
idiate  action.  There  is  presumably  some 
truth  in  the  story;  but  Redpath's  heated 
imagination  sees  the  whole  raid  through 
a  powerful  magnifying-glass,  and  he  wants 
to  avenge  the  friend  whom  he  honored 
like  a  saint,  by  trying  to  make  the  South 
believe  that  Brown  had  really  laid  a  huge 
network  of  mines  which,  in  spite  of  his 
execution,  would  soon  explode  into  the  air. 

The  main  reason  why  Brown,  as  soon 
as  he  had  brought  the  arsenal  into  his 
power,  remained  doubtingly  expectant,  en 
tirely  contrary  to  his  nature,  lay  much 
deeper. 

Mason  of  Virginia  declared  later  that 
at  least  fifteen  or  twenty  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  arms  had  been  found  in  Brown's 
house,  and  that  he  carried  with  him  "a 


122  ohn  Brown. 


large  sum  of  money  in  gold."1  This  is  a 
wanton  exaggeration.  There  were  found, 
besides  a  few  things  not  worth  mention 
ing,  one  hundred  and  two  rifles  and  twelve 
pistols,  with  a  considerable  amount  of 
ammunition,  four  hundred  and  eighty- 
three  pikes,  fifty-five  old  bayonets,  and 
twelve  artillery  sabres  ;  and  as  to  the 
large  sum  of  money,  it  would  at  the  out 
side  have  sufficed  to  support  a  battalion 
for  a  day.2  These  preparations  scarcely 
indicated  that  the  Union  was  in  danger 
of  being  lifted  from  its  foundations)  Still 
Brown  undoubtedly  counted  on  a  consid 
erable  addition  to  his  force,  although  he 
hardly  expected  much  assistance  from  Can 
ada,  or  from  the  Abolitionists  of  the  North, 
as  Redpath  will  have  itj  Th£_arios.,were 
evidently  especially  intended  for  the  slaves, 
•wkem-he~£xp.ected  to  deliver.  This  is  not, 

1  Congressional  Globe,  XXXVI.  Cong.,  I  Sess.,  p.  14. 

2  Brown  himself  says  before  the  court,  $250  or  $260. 


John  Brown.  123 

however,  by  any  means  equivalent  to  say 
ing —  as  not  only  his  enemies  but  his 
friends  have  often  asserted  —  that  he  i 
tended  to  excite  a  universal  revolt  of  the 
slaves,  if  the  word  "  revolt "  is  taken  in  its 
usual  meaning.  During  the  time  Brown 
was  still  completely  master  of  the  situa 
tion,  he  and  his  men,  when  they  were 
asked  what  they  wanted  to  do,  always 
answered  promptly  and  emphatically,  "  We 
want  to  free  .  the-slaves,"  Brown  offered 
repeatedly  to  free  his  prisoners — of  whom, 
for  a  time,  he  had  about  fifty — /if  he  could 
receive  a  slave  in  exchange  for  each  priso-( 
ner,  and  he  maintained  this  declaration 
unconditionally  to  the  last.  And  he  meant 
it  as  he  said  it.  To  free  the  slaves  was 
absolutely  his  one  object^  If  blood  were 
shed  in  the  attempt,  it  would  be  the  ene 
my's  fault ;  liberators  and  liberated  were 
to  make  use  of  their  arms  only  in  self- 
defence.  But  if  any  one  resisted  with  vio- 


124  John  Brown, 

lence  the  freeing  of  the  slaves,  he  was  — 
according  to  Brown's  view  —  the  attacking 
party,  since  the  slaves  through  emancipa 
tion  merely  entered  into  the  enjoyment  of 
thdrjnalienable  natural  rights.  If  their 
would-be  owners  placed  themselves  sword 
in  hand  between  them  and  their  natural 
rights,  then  self-defence  regardless  of  con 
sequences  was  not  only  a  right,  but  a 
sacred  duty.  Yet  Brown,  as  much  as  any 
man  in  the""Union,  would  have  shrunk 
with  horror  from  a  massacre  of  the  slave 
holders,  unless  it  had  been  necessary  for 
the  liberation  of  the  slaves.  But  if  such 
an  enormous  success  as  Brown  dreamed 
of  was  at  all  conceivable,  it  was  only  pos 
sible  in  case  many  thousands  of  slaves 

)  claimed  these  rights  of  theirs  at  the  first 
call  of  the  liberator.  And  if  that  hap- 

*  pened,  was  it  possible  that  they  should  con 
fine  themselves  to  defending  these  rights, 
or,  rather,  was  it  not  certain  that  they 


John  Brown.  125 

would  from  the  first  wade  ankle-deep  in 
the  blood  of  their  former  masters  ?  Any 
one  who  had  the  least  acquaintance  with 
the  great  mass  of  slaves  could  not  have 
a  moment's  doubt  as  to  the  answer.  But 
Brown,  incredible  though  it  may  sound, 
certainly  never  even  asked  himself  this 
question.  Nay,  more,  Brown  actually  ex 
pected  that  the  raid  on  Harper's  Ferry 
would  be  the  stroke  with  which  Moses 
called  forth  water  from  the  rock.  The 
spring  was  to  turn  southward,  and  in  its 
swift  course  to  swell  to  a  mighty  river.1 
;He  declared  expressly  to  Governor  Wise, 
.later  still  in  his  letters,  that  he  had 


/not  intended  simply  to  break  the  chc  ins 

1  A  map  was  found  among  Brown's  effects,  on  which 
the  number  of  slaves,  free  colored  people,  and  white  peo 
ple,  was  carefully  marked  for  each  State  and  county.  Evi 
dently  his  route  was  to  be  partially  determined  by  these 
numbers,  i  It  should,  however,  be  mentioned  that  there 
were  comparatively  few  slaves  in  and  around  Harper's 
Ferry. 


126  John  Brown. 

of  a  few  dozen  or  a  few  hundred  slaves, 
and  to  take  them  again  to  Canada.  Eman 
cipation  was  to  be  spread  farther  and  far 
ther,  and  the  Jreedinen  were  to  remain  in 
the  Southern  States. 

Heaven  itself  could   not  have  brought 
this  about,  unless   it  had  sent  the  angel 
of  judgment   to  cast  down  into  the  dust 
the  whole  white  population  from  Florida 
to  Maine.     Upon  recovering  from  the  stu 
pefaction  of  the  first  alarm,  the  white  pop- 
|     ulation  of  the  South  would  have  risen  as 
N    one  man  to  force  the  slaves  back  into  the 
^      |  yoke,  and  the  North,  with   the  exception 
I  of  a  handful  of  the  most  radical  Abolition- 
^  ists,  would  have  helped  the  South  with  all 
Jits    might.      And  truly  they  would   have 
^         |  been  right ;  though  slavery  was  an  incal- 
f* 'culable  wrong,  though  it  was   an    incon 
ceivable    curse    for    the    white    people,    it 
would  have  been  a  still  greater  misfortune 
for  black  and  for  white,  if  the  former  had 
U 


John  Broivn.  127 


the  twojuces.  1 
But  —  aside  from  this  —  it  was  certain  that 
the  whole  white  population  would  have  res 
olutely  taken  up  the  fight,  and  that  the 
blacks  would  have  been  crushed  like  tinder 
by  their  overwhelming  force.  The  more 
Brown's  dreams  were  realized,  the  more 
unavoidable  became  the  conflict  between 

unutterable  misery  on  those  he  wished  to 
protect.  The  question  of  slavery  in  the*  , 
United  States  was  a  many-sided  one,  not 
only  from  the  point  of  view  of  expediency, 
but  also  from  that  of  morality.  In  every 
established  law,  as  such,  there  is  also  a 
moral  element.  And  when  it  has  been 
possible  for  an  institution  such  as  slavery 
to  remain  established  law  for  centuries, 
then  there  have  been  active  causes  at  work- 
which  have  so  broadened  and  strengthened  ] 
this  moral  element  that  the  evil  cannot  be 
forcibly  overthrown  by  one  blow  without  , 


128  John  Brown. 

\  deeply  wounding  relations  which  morality 
([requires  us  most  scrupulously  to  respect. 
And  this  is  my  view,  although  a  study  of 
"  these  matters,  continued  for  many  years, 
has  persuaded  me  more  and  more  that  the 
question  of  slavery  in  the  Union  could 
only  be  solved  by  a  sharp  thrust,  dealt  by 
the  people  themselves,  acting  under  the 
pressure  of  an  iron  necessity.  If  any  one 
man  drew  from  his  catechism  the  conclu 
sion  that  he  had  the  moral  right  to  make 
such  an  attempt  on  his  own  responsibility, 
then,  so  far  as  he  succeeded,  the  number, 
as  well  as  the  importance,  of  the  inevitable 
immoral  consequences  must  very  notably 
increase. 

ft  That  in  spite  of  the  absolute  wickedness 
/  pi  slavery,  the  slave  problem  in  the  United 
f  /States  was  even  morally  a  very  complicated 
/  one,  was,  and  remained  to  the  last,  simply  in- 
/   comprehensible  to  Brown.     His  reasoning 
in  this  matter  was  made  up  of  two  propo- 


I         John  Brown.  i2gJ 

sitions :  jDo  unto  others  as  you  would 
have  them  do  unto  you,"  and  "  All  men 
are  born  free  and  equal,  l  His  sight  was 
keen,  but  he  saw  only  in  a  straight  line. 
This  is  easy  to  understand  when  one  con 
siders  that  he  looked  upon  the  question 
only  from  the  ethical  point  of  view.  Not 
only  would  he  have  nothing  to  do  with 
any  political  party,  soJhajLh^jIidj^t  even 
belong__tothe  Abontionists,  considered  as 
a  close  organization,  but  in  all  the  existing 
sources  of  information  there  is  not  the 
slightest  indication  that  he  ever  occupied 
himself  with  the  question  of  slavery,  con 
sidered  as  a  political  problem  affecting 
the  South,  or  the  North,  or  the  Union 
,as  a  whole.  His  position  was,  however^" 
entirely  different  as  regards  the  most 
immediate  practical  consequences  of  his 
undertaking.  Although  he  evidently  re^\ 
mained  a  stranger  to  the  considerations  I 
we  have  just  developed,  he  was  certainly 
9 


130  John  Brown. 

I  able  to  think  coolly  and  weigh  coming 
(events.  The  irresistible  impulse  which 
moved  him  now  at  last  to  do  the  deed  of 
his  life,  did  not  allow  him  to  make  use  of 
this  power  in  time,  but  as  soon  as  he  had 
crossed  the  Rubicon,  his  eminently  prac 
tical  instinct,  —  although  perhaps  without 
his  being  conscious  of  it  —  asserted  itself 
fully,  and  paralyzed  his  arm.  A  fore 
boding  came  over  him  that  after  all  he 
had  launched  his  boat  without  helm  or 
compass  upon  a  trackless  ocean,  —  that 
his  plan  was  based  on  an  inherent  contra 
diction,  which  must  necessarily  sooner  or 
later  cause  its  failure. 

However  painful  the  suggestion  may 
be  for  those  who  admire  and  revere 
Brown,  it  sounds  like  a  comic  interlude 
in  the  tragedy  when  we  read  that  the  man 
who,  against  the  law  of  absolute  right, 
against  all  legal  authorities,  and  against 
the  whole  nation,  presumed  to  start  a 


John  Brown.  131 

radical,  political,  and  social  revolution  in 
i  the  Southern  States,  which  was  to  be 
/  purchased  at  the  cost  of  a  four  years'  civil 
war  of  frightful  proportions, —  that  this 
man,  after  the  success  obtained  during  the 
first  two  hours,  remained  with  folded  arms 
and  waited  to  be  hemmed  in  and  hunted 
down  like  a  mad  wolf.  But  still  he  stands  ! 
forth  in  this  hopeless  fight,  a  grand,  he 
roic  figure  from  first  to  last,  while  his 
conquerors  have  covered  themselves  with 
imperishable  and  absolutely  unutterable 
disgrace  and  shame.  When  Brown  was 
completely  surrounded,  he  repeatedly  of 
fered  to  retreat  if  they  would  let  him  take 
his  prisoners  along  for  a  short  distance  as 
security ;  after  that  he  was  willing,  if 
necessary,  to  defend  his  life  in  open  battle. 
It  was  entirely  in  order  to  reject  these  con 
ditions.  In  the  eyes  of  the  authorities  he 
was  a  criminal;  they  could  not  embrace  his 
proposition  and  engage  with  him  in  battle 


132  John  Brown. 

according  to  the  rules  of  chivalry,  as 
though  they  had  stood  face  to  face  as 
individuals  possessed  of  the  same  rights. 
But  what  justification  was  there  for  shoot 
ing  down  from  a  safe  cover  the  men  who 
came  out  unarmed  and  under  a  white  flag- 
to  escort  prisoners  ?  It  could  not  be  as 
serted  that  they  were  regarded  as  poisonous 
vermin  whose  extermination  by  all  pos 
sible  means  was  a  necessity,  unless  the 
authors  of  the  statement  were  willing  to 
accuse  themselves  of  much  more  cowardly 
baseness.  Brown  had  quite  a  number  of 
prisoners.  What  if  he  had  now  said, 
"  an  eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth  "  ? 
His  acting  thus  would  have  been  con 
ceivable,  for  it  was  his  own  son  whom  the 
cowards  shot  down  before  his  eyes  like  a 
mad  dog,  while  he  stood  unarmed  before 
them.  And  this  was  not  all,  nor  was  it 
the  worst.  William  Thompson,  Brown's 
son-in-law,  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 


John  Brown.  133 

enemy  and  had  been  brought  a  prisoner 
to  a  hotel.  A  crowd  of  young  heroes 
were  for  killing  him  on  the  spot.  This 
was  with  difficulty  prevented  by  a  young 
lady,  named  Miss  Foulke,  the  sister  of  the 
proprietor  of  the  hotel,  who  threw  herself 
again  and  again  between  the  prisoner  and 
the  revolvers.  She  is  said  to  have  declared 
later  that  she  did  not  in  the  least  oppose 
the  execution,  she  merely  did  not  wish  her 
carpet  to  be  soiled  with  blood.  The  car 
pet  was  saved  from  all  injury  by  the  heroic 
girl.  Thompson  was  sent  into  eternity  on 
the  railroad  bridge.  He  fell  over  the  rail 
ing  and  remained  lying  at  the  foot  of  a 
pillar,  but  so  clumsily  had  the  hangman, 
who  stood  close  to  him,  performed  his 
work  that  he  still  gave  signs  of  life ;  a 
general  discharge  from  the  bridge  ended 
his  sufferings.  Henry  Hunter,  the  son  of 
the  prosecuting  attorney,  boasted  before 
the  court  that  he  had  played  the  part  of  a 


134  John  Brown. 

leader  in  this  heroic  deed,  and  repeatedly 
declared  that  he  had  acted  deliberately. 
Is  there  any  need  of  saying  that  he  was 
never  in  the  least  troubled  by  the  courts 
on  account  of  this  affair,  and  that  he  be 
came  one  of  the  lions  of  the  day?  And 
what  vengeance  did  they  take,  these  high 
way  robbers,  toward  whom  the  noble 
Virginians  thought  every  brutal  cruelty 
permissible,  if  not  praiseworthy  ?  Brown 
had  allowed  the  railroad  train  to  proceed, 
"  in  order  to  reassure  those  who  might 
have  thought  we  were  come  here  to  burn 
and  to  kill."  He  allowed  the  prisoners  to 
go  out  with  an  escort  and  to  reassure  their 
families,  and  as  the  firing  of  the  attacking 
party  grew  hotter,  he  warned  the  prisoners 
to  keep  in  sheltered  corners,  that  they 
might  not  be  hurt.  One  of  his  sons  lay 
dead  at  his  feet ;  with  his  left  hand  he  felt 
the  pulse  of  his  other  son,  who  was  dying, 
while  his  right  hand  held  his  rifle,  and  his 


John  Brown.  135 

eye,  steady  and  clear,  followed  the  move 
ments  of  the  enemy.  Thus  he  stood,  still 
warning  his  surviving  companions  not  to 
shoot  at  people  who  were  not  engaging  in 
the  fight. 

The  militia  had  not  the  courage  to  seek 
the  lion  in  his  lair.  It  was  not  till  a  body 
of  troops  of  the  United-States  marines 
had  come,  that  an  attack  on  the  engine- 
house  was  ventured  upon.  A  long  ladder 
did  duty  as  a  battering-ram,  and  the  door 
was  broken  through  at  the  second  onset. 
All  further  resistance  was  now  useless. 
Brown  called  out  to  the  soldiers  who  were 
rushing  in  that  he  surrendered.  Did  they 
not  hear  him,  or  did  they  shut  their  ears 
to  his  call  ?  At  any  rate  he  was  lying  on 
the  ground  without  attempting  to  defend 
himself  when  he  received  several  sword- 
cuts  on  the  head,  also  bayonet-thrusts  in 
the  abdomen.  Brown  himself,  who  up  to 
this  point  had  remained  unhurt,  was  gen-  & 


136  John  Brown. 

erous  enough  to  declare  his  belief  that  his 
being  wounded  was  an  unfortunate  acci 
dent  attributable  to  the  confusion  of  the 
moment.  However,  Lieutenant  Green  ac 
knowledged  during  Copeland's  trial  that 
he  had  struck  Brown  on  the  head  after  he 
had  already  been  knocked  down,  and  on 
being  asked  again  whether  Brown  was 
actually  lying  on  the  ground,  he  repeated 
his  statement.  At  the  reproachful  request 
of  the  prosecuting  attorney,  Copeland's 
counsel  gave  up  pushing  "such  ques 
tions  "  farther. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  why  Hunter, 
the  worthy  father  of  a  still  worthier  son, 
did  not  like  "  such  questions."  But  the 
heroic  courage  of  Brown's  conqueror  stood 
out  already  in  such  bold  relief  that  it  made 
little  difference  whether  light  was  thrown 
on  one  or  the  other  of  the  remaining  ob 
scure  points.  I  have  before  me  the  official 
report  which  Colonel  Baylor,  commander 


John  Brown.  137 

of  the  militia  at  Harper's  Ferry,  made 
to  Governor  Wise.  From  this  report *  I 
borrow  the  following  facts.  Wise's  tele 
grams  called  into  action  first  of  all,  I.  H. 
Gibson,  who  marched  at  once  with  the 
Jefferson  Guards  and  a  body  of  armed 
citizens  of  Charlestown  from  the  latter 
place  to  Harper's  Ferry.  At  Halltown, 
halfway  between  the  two  points,  he  tele 
graphed  for  immediate  reinforcements, 
to  consist  of  the  militia  of  Frederick 
County,  the  Hamtramck  Guards,  and 
the  Shepherdstown  Troop.  On  reach 
ing  Harper's  Ferry  he  was  joined  by  the 
armed  citizens  of  the  place.  A  few 
hours  later  the  reinforcements  that  had 
been  asked  for  arrived,  also  a  company 
from  Martinsburg,  and  later  in  the  even 
ing  another  company  from  Winchester. 
Colonel  Baylor,  who  in  the  mean  time 

1  The  Life,  Trial,  and  Execution  of  Capt.  John  Brown, 

pp.  40-44. 


138  John  Brown. 

had  assumed  the  command,  summoned  in 
addition  the  third  regiment  of  cavalry, 
and  formed  two  more  companies  of  citi 
zens.  Before  the  struggle  was  over  there 
arrived,  besides  the  Continental  Guards 
under  Captain  Washington,  riflemen  un 
der  Captain  Clarke  and  three  companies 
from  Frederick,  Maryland.  It  would  seem 
that  this  was  a  sufficient  force  against  an 
enemy  who  had  at  the  first  numbered 
twenty-two  men  and  had  in  the  mean  time 
suffered  severe  losses.  However,  when 
Colonel  Lee,  who  commanded  the  eighty- 
five  marines,  expressed  the  rash  opinion 
that  the  militia  themselves  might  have 
captured  the  engine-house  with  its  garri 
son  of  four  combatants,  the  latter  politely 
declined  the  honor  of  making  the  attack. 
True,  they  were  not  only  masters  of  the 
art  of  shooting  down  prisoners  and  men 
under  a  flag  of  truce,  but  fear  had  taught 
them  the  science  of  multiplication  much 


John  Brown.  139 

better  than  Falstaff  had  ever  learned  it. 
Colonel  Baylor  tells  us  that  on  his  arrival 
the  insurgents  were  estimated  at  from 
three  hundred  to  five  hundred  men. 

The  Virginians  demonstrated  amply  dur 
ing  the  Civil  War  that  they  were  not 
cowards.  What  made  them  shake  in  their 
shoes  was  not  John  Brown  and  his  hand 
ful  of  men,  but  the  shadows  which  their 
excited  imagination  saw  standing  behind 
them.  There  is  certainly  some  foundation 
for  the  charge  that  Governor  Wise  pur 
posely  sought  to  increase  the  excitement 
by  his  extraordinary  measures  of  defence ; 
because  he  labored  under  the  delusion  that 
this  agitation  would  be  an  excellent  step 
ping-stone  to  the  presidential  chair.  But 
on  the  whole,  neither  the  fear  of  shadows 
nor  the  excitement  was  artificially  pro 
duced.  Colonel  Baylor  declared  from  the 
first  that  the  fear  lest  a  rescue  could  be 
effected  was  entirely  without  foundation. 


140  John  Brown. 

But  the  putting  under  martial  law  of  the 
whole  district  around  Charlestown,  whither 
the  prisoners  were  brought;  the  keeping 
under. arms  a  small  army  of  militia-troops, 
the  sending  of  fresh  troops  and  artillery  to 
Charlestown  by  Governor  Wise  on  the  first 
false  alarm,  and  his  praising  the  soldiers 
for  not  looking  "  pale  with  fear ;  "  the  not 
even  allowing  John  Brown's  wife  to  ap 
proach  the  prison  except  under  a  strong  mil 
itary  escort ;  the  chaining  of  the  wounded 
man,  who  was  unable  to  stand,  to  a  fellow- 
prisoner,  and  the  bringing  him  to  his  first 
hearing  under  a  guard  of  eighty  men ;  the 
glittering  of  bayonets  all  over  the  court 
house  ;  finally,  the  assumption  by  the  State 
of  the  control  of  the  railroads  shortly  be 
fore  the  execution,  for  greater  security,  and 
the  introduction  of  a  strict  system  of  pass 
ports,  —  all  this  was  to  a  great  extent  a 
wretched  humbug  gotten  up  for  effect. 
There  were  plenty  of  people  in  the  South 


John  Brown.  141 

who  were  fully  conscious  of  this.  The 
"Charleston  Mercury,"  the  most  influential 
organ  of  the  extremists,  called  it,  "  The 
Virginia  Farce  and  its  Terrorism, — a,tissue 
of  the  most  disgraceful  exaggeration  and 
invention,  such  as  must  excite  the  gall  of 
every  Southerner  who  has  regard  for  the 
dignity  and  personal  responsibility  of  the 
Southern  people."  The  same  sheet  de 
clared  :  "  It  seems  really  as  though  the 
men  who  hold  the  telegraph  wires  had 
joined  together  to  make  us  an  object  of 
mockery  and  ridicule  to  ourselves  and  to 
the  world."  l  Yet  it  was  no  humbug,  but 
a  genuine  scare,  which  drove  couriers  to 
horse,  and  set  the  telegraph  in  motion 
for  every  burning  haystack,  and  brought  a 
poor  cow  to  its  death  because  it  ventured 
to  approach  the  sentinels  without  knowing 
the  watchword.  When,  later  on,  the  rep 
resentatives  of  Virginia  complained  bitterly 

1  Congressional  Globe,  loc.  cit.,  p.  65. 


142  John  Brown. 

in  the  Senate  that  the  North  had  shown 
so  little  sympathy  for  Virginia  in  its  mis 
fortune  and  distress,  Chandler  replied : 
"  We  do  not  understand  a  case  like  this. 
.  .  .  If  seventeen  or  twenty-two  generals 
from  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  were  to 
attack  Springfield,  I  will  guarantee  that, 
supposing  there  were  not  a  man  within 
five  thousand  miles,  the  women  would  bind 
them  fast  within  thirty  minutes,  and  would 
not  demand  any  sympathy.  .  .  .  The  pa 
pers  tell  us  that  Governor  Wise  compared 
the  population  of  Harper's  Ferry  to  sheep. 
That  is  slanderous ;  it  is  not  true,  for  I 
have  never  yet  seen  a  flock  of  fifty  or  one 
hundred  sheep  in  which  there  was  not  one 
warlike  bell-wether!"1  Cutting  words,  but 
true.  How  could  the  North  understand, 
that  a  town  of  three  thousand  (others  say 
five  thousand)  inhabitants  in  a  great  State  \ 
like  Virginia  could  be  driven  into  a  panic  \, 

1  Congressional  Globe,  loc.  cit.,  p.  34. 


John  Brown.  143 

by  a  body  of  twenty-two  men?  But  the 
fact  that  such  things  were  possible  in  the 
South  was  not  lost  on  the  North.  The 
stunning  effect  which  this  raid  produced 
on  the  South  gave  the  lie  in  the  most 
emphatic  and  annihilating  fashion  to  the 
insolent  and  insane  hymns  which  were  be 
ing  constantly  sung  in  praise  of  slavery. 
If  his  deed  had  produced  no  other  effect, 
Brown  would  still  have  been  justified  in 
his  glorious  declaration  that  he  willingly 
mounted  the  scaffold,  since  his  life  and 
that  of  his  fellows  had  not  been  offered  up 
in  vain  to  the  great  cause. 

The  best  evidence  of  the  frightful  genu 
ineness  of  the  panic  is  the  brazen  impu 
dence  with  which  it  was  brought  forward  as 
the  justifying  motive  for  the  many  atroci 
ties  which  marked  the  trial.  The  brutaliz 
ing  influences  of  slavery  came  to  light  with 
terrible  vividness.  Kapp's  statement  that 
Brown  "  enjoyed  very  careful  treatment  " 


144  John  Brown. 

is  not  mistaken,  but  it  is  true  only  of  the 
later  period  of  his  imprisonment.  Watson 
Brown,  whose  life  was  prolonged  until 
the  early  morning  of  the  igth  of  Octo 
ber,  complained  of  the  hard  bench  he  was 
forced  to  lie  on.  His  fellow-prisoner,  Cop- 
poc,  begged  for  a  mattress,  or  at  least  a 
blanket,  for  the  dying  man,  but  could  ob 
tain  neither.  Both  Brown  himself  and 
Stevens,  who  was  even  more  seriously 
wounded,  had  nothing  furnished  them  but 
wretched  straw.  Redpath  (p.  373)  assures 
us  that  "from  October  19  till  November  7 
no  clean  clothing  was  given  to  Brown,  but 
that  he  lay  in  his  soiled  and  blood-stained 
garments  just  as  he  had  fallen  at  Harper's 
Ferry."  On  the  25th  of  October  he  was 
brought  before  the  court;  he  was  not  at 
first  carried  there  on  a  camp-bed,  as  was 
the  case  afterward,  but  compelled  to  walk, 
leaning  on  two  men.  Virginia  could  not 
wait  till  he  could  stand.  And  why  was 


John  Brown.  145 

Virginia  in  so  much  haste?  Hunter  said 
the  expenses  were  too  large;  the  judges 
declared  that  the  term  would  soon  be  over, 
and  they  wished  to  dispose  of  the  cases 
against  the  leaders  before  the  end,  and 
Hunter  crowned  the  whole  matter  by 
demanding  that  Virginia  should  be  re 
leased  from  her  anxiety.  Brown  cost  Vir 
ginia  dear  indeed.  The  commissioners 
to  whom  the  financial  side  of  the  busi 
ness  was  intrusted  handed  in  to  the  State 
an  account  of  $i85,667.O3.1  But  it  was 
certainly  gloriously  original  to  make  a 
state  trial  an  extremely  costly  amusement 
by  means  of  the  wildest  and  most  useless 
precautionary  measures  while  the  prose 
cuting  attorney  was  continually  crying  out, 
"  Hurry  him  to  the  gallows,  or  the  tax 
payers  will  be  making  wry  faces  at  us." 
Why  should  the  prosecuting  attorney  not 
bring  forward  such  reasons,  however,  if  the 

1  The  Independent,  March  8,  1860. 
10 


146  John  Brown. 

judges  did  not  make  it  their  sole  and  only 
care  to  pronounce  righteously  and  to  guard 
most  carefully  the  rights  which  humanity 
and  the  laws  emphatically  accord  to  the 
man  who  is  tried  for  his  life  ?  And  if  the 
judges  wanted  above  all  things  to  get 
through,  why  should  the  prosecuting  at 
torney  blush  for  shame  as  he  stated  that 
the  defendants  must  be  delivered  over  to 
the  executioner  as  soon  as  possible,  be 
cause  u  there  can  be  no  woman  in  the 
whole  county  who,  with  or  without  rea 
son,  does  not  tremble  with  anxiety  and 
fear  "  as  long  as  a  half-dozen  of  prisoners, 
most  of  them  severely  wounded,  have  not 
been  sent  to  their  last  account  ? 

A  dreadful  picture  is  here  !  —  a  court 
house,  in  front  of  which  cannon  have  been 
dragged,  and  which  is  packed  with  people 
who  do  not  wish  to  hear  a  verdict  but  a 
condemnation ;  the  condemnation  of  a 
man  of  sixty  years  who  lies  covered  with 


John  Brown.  147 

wounds  on  his  litter,  manifesting  a  mar 
vellous  composure,  listening  without  the 
least  excitement  to  attorney  and  judges  as 
they  heartily  unite  in  the  decision  that  all 
possible  means  must  be  employed  for  has 
tening  his  fearful  end.  When  the  hearing 
revealed  the  story  of  Thompson's  cruel  fate 
in  all  its  particulars,  the  tears  rolled  down 
Brown's  cheeks,  but  the  gallows  erected 
for  himself  was  in  his  eyes  a  ladder  to 
heaven,  and  he  greeted  it  with  a  smile. 
It  was  only  his  sense  of  justice  and  the 
wish  not  to  let  the  motives  of  his  action 
be  covered  over  with  foul,  mendacious 
mud,  which  made  him  demand  what  he 
would  have  obtained  as  a  matter  of  course 
in  every  State  where  the  laws  are  properly 
administered.  On  his  very  first  appear 
ance  in  court,  Brown  begged  the  judges 
for  their  own  sakes  and  for  his  not  to  give 
him  a  sham  trial.  "  When  I  was  taken 
prisoner,"  said  he,  "  I  did  not  ask  for  quar- 


148  John  Brown. 

ter;  I  did  not  ask  that  my  life  be  spared. 
The  governor  of  Virginia  assured  me  that 
I  should  have  a  fair  trial,  but  under  no 
circumstances  shall  I  be  able  to  secure 
one.  If  you  want  my  blood,  you  can  have 
it  at  any  moment  without  going  through 
with  this  mockery  of  a  trial.  I  have  had 
no  lawyer.  I  have  been  unable  to  take 
advice  of  any  one.  .  .  .  There  are  exten 
uating  circumstances  which  I  would  ad 
duce  in  our  favor,  if  we  could  be  granted  a 
fair  hearing.  But  if  you  wish  to  force  an 
empty  form  upon  us  —  a  trial  for  the  pur 
pose  of  hanging  us  —  you  had  better  spare 
your  pains.  I  am  ready  to  meet  my  fate." ] 
The  court's  answer  proved  that  he 
was  indeed  to  have  a  trial  only  "  for  the 
purpose  of  hanging  him."  Brown  asked 
for  a  short  postponement  until  he  should 
be  in  a  little  better  state  of  health.  He 

1  The  Life,  Trial,  and  Execution  of  Capt.  John  Brown, 
P- 55- 


John  Brown.  149 

could  not  now,  he  said,  rely  upon  his 
memory,  and  his  hearing  was  for  the  time 
being  still  so  much  affected  by  the  scalp- 
wounds  he  had  received  that  he  could  not 
understand  what  was  said.  The  prosecut 
ing  attorney  requested  the  court  not  to 
take  notice  of  these  "  trifling  statements." 
As  the  physician's  opinion  agreed  with 
Hunter's  wishes,  the  court  maintained  that 
it  was  entirely  in  order  to  bring  before  its 
bar  on  a  camp-bed  a  man  suffering  from 
five  serious  wounds  —  one  of  his  kidneys 
had  been  pricked  or  cut  into  —  on  trial  for 
his  life.  Brown  had  moreover  requested  a 
delay  of  two  or  three  days  to  give  time  for 
the  arrival  of  the  lawyer  whom  he  had 
asked  to  undertake  his  defence.  His  re 
quest  was  denied ;  the  court  assigned  him 
two  lawyers;  and  the  trial  began  before 
Brown  had  been  able  to  speak  a  word  to 
the  counsel  that  had  been  given  him. 
Brown  was  right ;  a  fair  trial  was  out  of 


150  John  Brown. 

the  question  from  the  outset,  for  in  no 
slave  State,  and  least  of  all  in  Virginia, 
could  a  jury  be  brought  together  in  the 
usual  way  which  would  not  come  with  pre 
conceived  opinions,  such  as  would  make  a 
condemnation  absolutely  sure.  But  when 
we  consider  that  in  addition  to  a  court  of 
slave-holders  and  a  jury  as  above  described, 
there  were  assigned  as  counsel  for  the  de 
fence,  lawyers  who  were  also  born  and 
bred  under  the  poisonous  breath  of  slavery, 
we  perceive  that  it  was  an  insult  to  talk  of 
a  fair  trial,  however  honorable  the  judges, 
jurymen,  and  lawyers  might  be.  And 
moreover,  it  was  an  outrage,  under  the 
existing  circumstances,  to  deny  the  de 
fendant,  whose  life  was  at  stake,  a  delay 
of  two  days  in  order  that  he  might  secure 
the  counsel  he  wanted. 

It  has  been  said,  in  order  to  justify  the 
refusal  of  the  court,  that  they  acted  in 
the  belief  that  Brown  only  wished  for  a 


John  Brown.  151 

postponement  in  order  to  improve  his 
chances  of  being  forcibly  rescued.  One 
might  almost  be  tempted  at  first  sight  to 
believe  that  such  fears  were  genuinely 
entertained  when  one  reads  at  the  end 
of  one  of  the  official  reports,  "  The  jailers 
have  orders  to  shoot  down  all  the  pris 
oners,  if  an  attempt  is  made  to  deliver 
them."  But  this  excuse  can  hardly  stand 
when  we  consider  the  decision  which  for 
bade  all  exhaustive  reports  of  the  trial,  and 
the  refusal  to  allow  reporters  access  to 
Brown,  —  a  refusal  which  was  explained 
by  some  one  of  the  slave-holders'  party  to 
have  been  due  to  the  fear  that  he  might 
say  something  calculated  to  influence  pub 
lic  opinion,  and  to  have  a  bad  effect  on  the 
slaves." ]  But  even  if  the  members  of  the 
court  really  believed  at  first  that  Brown 
wished  to  protect  himself  by  means  of 

1  The  Life,  Trial,  and  Execution  of  Capt.  John  Brown, 
PP-  57,  58. 


152  John  Brown. 

empty  pretexts,  they  speedily  received  the 
proof  that  this  assumption  was  entirely 
false.  His  counsel  submitted  a  paper  to 
the  court,  which,  pointing  to  the  fact  that 
several  of  the  members  of  Brown's  family 
had  been  or  were  still  insane,  suggested  that 
a  mental  derangement  might  be  assumed  in 
his  case  also.  The  facts  were  correct,  and 
Browrn  might  therefore  have  obtained  a 
much  longer  postponement;  but  he  re 
pelled  "  with  scorn,"  as  a  very  poor  device, 
the  insinuation  that  he  was  not  in  his 
senses.  Now  what  did  the  court  do,  when, 
as  frequently  happened,  a  postponement 
of  a  day  or  of  a  few  hours  was  again  re 
quested?  With  one  exception  the  request 
was  denied,  and  in  this  one  instance 
Hunter  expressly  protested  against  its 
being  granted.  And  yet  it  was  a  question 
of  waiting  for  the  arrival  of  lawyers  from 
the  free  States,  who  had  telegraphed  that 
they  were  coming,  or  of  allowing  Hoyt  a 


John  Brown.  153 

few  hours'  rest  before  beginning  the  de 
fence,  —  Hoyt  was  a  young  lawyer  from 
Massachusetts  who  had  worked  all  night, 
straining  his  powers  to  the  utmost,  in 
order  to  gain  in  haste  some  knowledge  of 
the  statutes  of  Virginia  bearing  on  the 
case,  but  had  not  yet  been  able  to  read 
through  the  testimony  of  the  witnesses 
who  had  been  examined  before  his  arrival, 
and  was  completely  exhausted  in  body  and 
mind.  Toward  the  end  the  defendant's 
lawyers  were  even  obliged  to  haggle  with 
the  court  over  the  number  of  hours  within 
which  they  were  to  confine  their  conclud 
ing  speeches. 

Still  further  evidence  of  Brown's  magna 
nimity  is  furnished  by  his  statement  that 
the  trial  was  conducted  as  fairly  as  could 
have  been  expected  under  the  circum 
stances.  Nor  do  I  myself  mean  to  say 
that  the  verdict  would  or  could  have  been 
otherwise  than  it  was.  I  do  not  believe 


154  John  Brown. 

it  would,  although  it  is  possible  to  raise 
quite  a  number  of  objections  —  which  can 
be  supported  by  extracts  from  the  con 
stitutional  and  from  the  criminal  law  — 
against  the  drawing  up  of  the  suit  and  con 
sequently  against  the  judgment  rendered. 
However,  these  are  merely  technical  le 
gal  points,  and  the  trial  was  eminently  a 
political  one.  Forms  were  sinned  against, 
but  in  the  main,  justice  was  done.  He 
who  undertakes  such  a  game  stakes  his 
life.  Brown  had  forfeited  his  life,  and 
that  not  only  according  to  the  laws  of 
Virginia,  for  in  every  State  where  the 
death  penalty  exists  he  would  necessarily 
have  been  condemned  for  a  similar  crime. 
The  motives  which  actuated  him  must 
furnish  the  ground  on  which  to  judge  his 
character,  but  the  jury  and  the  court  in 
rendering  judgment  could  only  deal  with 
the  facts. 

There  was  no  such  haste  to  carry  out 


John  Brown.  155 

the  sentence  as  there  had  been  to  bring 
the  trial  to  a  close.  On  the  2d  of  No 
vember,  ^Brown  was  sentenced  to  suffer 
death  by  hanging  on  the  2d  of  Decem 
ber.  Several  thousand  militia-men,  infan 
try,  and  cavalry,  had  been  called  out  for 
the  day,  and  loaded  cannon  had  been 
gosted  so  as  to  command  the  gallows  and 
the  streets,  as  though  it  were  very  much 
to  be  feared  that  Brown  would  be  rescued 
at  the  last  moment  from  the  hands  of  the 
executioner ;  and  yet  no  stranger  was  al 
lowed  to  come  within  two  or  three  miles 
of  the  place  of  execution.  One  cannot 
wonder  at  this,  since  even  the  would-be 
spectators  from  the  neighborhood  were 
kept  so  far  from  the  gallows  that  Brown's 
voice  could  not  have  reached  them ;  and 
yet  there  was  certainly  not  one  among 
them  who  would  have  raised  his  finger 
to  keep  the  rope  from  Brown's  throat. 
During  the  previous  days  they  had  glutted 


156  John  Brown. 

their  eyes  gazing  on  the  fatal  rope,  which 
[was  publicly  exposed.  It  is  characteristic 
of  the  feeling  in  the  South  that  three 
States  contended  for  the  honor  of  furnish- 
.  ing  this  rope.  Kapp,  however,  is  wrong 
when  he  says,  in  accordance  with  the  first 
newspaper  reports,  that  South  Carolina 
carried  the  day  in  this  noble  contest. 
The  cotton  of  the  plantation  State  was 
too  weak  to  bear  John  Brown's  weight. 
The  preference  had  to  be  given  to  hemp, 
which  grows  in  more  northern  climes,  and 
the  hemp  used  had  been  grown  in  Henry 
Clay's  State,  —  the  border  State  of  Ken- 

Itucky.1  There  was  a  fitness  in  this.  The 
North  and  South  were  equally  responsible 
for  the  hanging  of  John  Brown. 

Brown  was  writing  his  will  up  to  the 
last  moment.  When  the  parting  came,  he 
exhorted  his  companions,  heartily,  to  be 
firm,  and  gave  each  of  them  —  with  the 

1  The  Independent,  Dec.  8,  1859. 


John  Brown.  157 

exception  of  Cook,  who  had  attempted  to 
buy  his  life  by  falsehoods  —  twenty-five 
cents,  "since  he  had  no  more  use  for 
money."  Thus  is  his  ideal  childish  sim 
plicity  carried  to  almost  inconceivable 
lengths ;  and  yet  he  does  not  for  one 
moment  cease  to  be  a  thoroughly  sober, 
practical  American.  In  speaking  of  the 
bringing  up  of  his  daughters,  he  exhorts 
his  wife  not  to  forget  that  "  the  music  of 
the  broom  and  the  wash-tub,  of  the  nee 
dle  and  the  spinning-wheel,  of  the  sickle 
and  the  flail,"  should  precede  that  of  the 
piano  ;  and  in  one  of  his  last  letters  he 
complains  that  she  has  not  told  him  any 
thing  of  the  condition  of  the  crops  on 
the  little  farm.  The  often-repeated  story" 
that  on  coming  out  of  prison  he  took  a 
negro  woman's  child  from  her  arms  and 
kissed  it,  is  presumably  a  poetic  embel 
lishment.  I  do  not  find  the  circumstance^ 
mentioned  in  the  most  reliable  report^/ 


158  John  Brown. 

that  I  am  acquainted  with,  and  consid 
ering  the  exaggerated  precautions  which 
were  taken,  it  is  not  likely  that  negroes 
were  allowed  to  come  near  him.  More- 

—    — 

;V  over,  anything  that  would  have  looked 
like  a  scene  out  of  a  play  was  repugnant 
to  his  nature.  The  crystal-clear  truthful 
ness  of  his  nature  is  illustrated  once  more 
by  the  fact  that  he  remained  perfectly 
simple  and  natural  up  to  the  last.  On 
being  asked  whether  he  considers  himself 
an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  Providence, 
he  answers  simply  and  firmly,  "  I  do." 
True,  he  declares  that  he  is  not  being 
executed  but  "  publicly  murdered,"  and 
yet  not  for  a  single  minute  does  he  at 
tempt  to  clothe  himself  with  the  air  of  a 
martyr  and  saint.  Sitting  on  his  own 
coffin,  he  takes  his  last  journey;  but  he 
lets  his  eye  wander  over  the  sunny  land 
scape  with  quiet  earnestness,  as  though 
he  were  looking  with  a  friend  at  his  own 


John  Brown.  159 

North  Elba,  and  says,  "  This  is  a  beautiful 
country."  With  a  firm  step  he  mounts  the 
ladder  leading  up  to  the  gallows.  On 
the  sheriff's  handing  him  a  cloth  to  give 
the  signal  when  he  shall  be  ready,  he 
refuses  it,  and  says,  "  I  am  ready  at  any 
time,  but  do  not  make  me  wait  longer 
than  is  necessary."  This  last  request 
was  not  fulfilled.  The  sheriff  received 
orders  to  wait,  and  the  troops  began  to 
go  through  all  sorts  of  evolutions.  Brown 
had  to  wait  ten  minutes  with  the  cap 
drawn  over  his  eyes  and  with  his  hands 
bound.  He  stood  erect,  without  shudder 
ing  in  the  least,  or  betraying  any  excite 
ment.  The  undertaker  had  said  to  him 
during  the  ride,  "  Captain  Brown,  you  are 
in  better  spirits  to-day  than  I ; "  and  he 
had  answered,  "  I  have  good  cause  to  be 
so."  When  the  sheriff,  indignant  at  Gen 
eral  Taliaferro's  cruelty,  asked  him  pity 
ingly  if  he  were  not  tired,  he  answered, 


160  John  Brown. 

"  Not  tired ;  but  don't  make  me  wait 
any  longer  than  is  absolutely  necessary." 
These  were  his  last  words. 

This  closing  scene  of  the  tragedy  filled 
the  North  with  horror.  People  said  and 
rightly  too,  that  such  things  could  not 
have  happened  north  of  Mason  and  Dix- 
on's  line  at  the  execution  of  the  most  ab 
ject  criminal.  Yet  individuals  might  be 
directly  responsible  for  these  barbarities, 
while  the  fact  itself  of  Brown's  execution 
would  have  to  be  settled  by  every  one  with 
the  whole  South  and  with  himself.  The 
President's  way  of  doing  this  was  to  give 
a  dinner  to  the  diplomatic  corps  on  the 
day  of  the  execution.  This  was  a  method 
which  did  not  accord  with  the  feelings  of 
either  party.  There  were  certainly  many 
men  among  the  Southern  aristocracy  who 
perceived  the  want  of  tact  of  any  demon 
stration  on  the  part  of  the  federal  execu 
tive,  nor  was  such  a  petty  and  underhand 


John  Brown.  161 

proceeding  calculated  to  please  any  South 
ern  "fire-eater."  But  the  North  looked 
upon  Brown  with  a  feeling  which  turned 
Buchanan's  dinner  into  a  cowardly,  con 
temptible  insult.  A  few  only  called  the~l 
execution  a  piece  of  meanness,  but  thou 
sands  and  ten  thousands  who  unreservedly  \j$ 
acknowledged  that  death  by  the  hand  of 
the  executioner  was  the  legitimate  result 
of  his  undertaking  honored  his  memory 
by  solemn  religious  ceremonies.  "  What 
sort  of  a  system  is  this,  which  drives  men 
like  Brown  to  acts  rendering  a  resort  to 
the  executioner's  axe  a  horrible  but  un- 
\avoidable  necessity  ?  "  This  was  the  ques-  .J 
tion  that  lay  on  countless  lips,  and  it  was 
a  question  of  immense  importance.  Piti 
ful  though  the  attitude  of  most  politicians 
was  toward  this  affair,  —  the  Democrats 
seeking  with  greedy  eagerness  to  make  it  a 
poisonous  arrow  in  the  flesh  of  the  Repub 
licans,  and  the  Republicans  repelling  with 


1 62  John  Brown. 

holy  horror  as  a  shameful  calumny  the 
charge  that  they  were  not  filled  with  as 
great  an  aversion  toward  the  deed  as  the 
most  conscientious  Democrat,  —  the  best 
portion  of  the  people  in  all  classes  were 
pervaded  and  thrilled  by  the  conviction 
that  a  martyr  had  laid  down  his  life  as  an 
offering  for  the  sins  of  the  nation,  and 
that  the  fateful,  "  All  ready,  Mr.  Sheriff," 
on  the  field  of  Charlestown,  was  not  the 
end  of  the  matter;  this  seed  sown  in 
blood  must  needs  bring  forth  a  mighty 
harvest,  —  it  must  become  a  curse  or  a 
blessing. 

People  were  far  from  looking  upon 
Brown  in  this  light  from  the  first.  The 
"  New  York  Tribune,"  in  many  respects  the 
most  prominent  and  most  extreme  organ 
of  the  Republicans,  summed  up  the  case  by 
calling  him  simply  "  a  madman  ;  "  and  the 
"  Independent,"  one  of  the  most  radical  anti- 
slavery  papers  outside  of  the  small  circle 


John  Brown.  163 


of  Abolitionists  in  the  narrowest  sense  of 
the  word,  described  him  on  the  2oth  of 
October  as  "  a  lawless  brigand."  On 
November  24,  on  the  other  hand,  the  "  In 
dependent  "  declares,  "  The  people's  ver 
dict  has  already  stamped  John  Brown  as 
a  brave  and  honest  man."  And  on  De 
cember  8,  the  same  sheet  writes :  "  No 
man  has  ever  made  such  a  profound  im 
pression  on  this  nation  through  his  moral_ 
heroism.  .  .  .  Each  of  his  actions,  each 
word  he  spoke  up  to  the  time  of  his  ex 
ecution  has  only  strengthened  and  in 
creased  the  power  of  his  example.  He 
grew  constantly  greater  up  to  the  end. 
He  was  greatest  at  the  last,  when  most 
men  would  have  been  weakest."  Here 
we  have  an  example  of  the  change  of 
opinion  concerning  Brown  which  took 
place  during  his  six  weeks'  imprisonment, 
and  he  who  carefully  follows  his  intel 
lectual  and  spiritual  life  during  this  period 


164  John  Brown. 

will  fully  understand  this  change.  When 
,  a  slave-holder  said  to  him  in  prison,  "  You 
are  a  fanatic,"  he  answers  with  the  quiet 
of  conviction,  "  You  yourself  are  a  fa 
natic."  And  before  the  court  he  declares, 
"  I  consider  it  not  unlawful,  but  lawful  that 
I  have  thus  taken  the  place  of  God's  de 
spised  arm.  If  it  is  thought  right  that  I 
should  lose  my  life  to  further  the  purposes 
of  righteousness,  and  to  mingle  my  blood 
with  that  of  my  children  and  with  that  of 
the  millions  of  slaves  in  this  land  whose 
rights  have  been  trodden  down  by  sinful, 
cruel,  and  unrighteous  laws,  why,  then,  be 
it  so."  Here  John  Brown  takes  his  stand; 
every  word  and  action  afford  fresh  evi 
dence  that  this  and  this  alone  is  the 
ground  on  which  his  feet  rest.  Even  in 
the  smallest  things  he  remains  true  to  him 
self.  He  goes  steadfastly  and  evenly  on 
his  way,  even  to  the  dark  end,  as  though 
an  irresistible  natural  law  were  driving 


John  Brown.  165 

•!•  ••" 

him  on.  The  number  of  his  letters  writ 
ten  in  prison  is  considerable,  and  not  even 
in  the  most  confidential  of  these  can  the 
closest  scrutiny  discover  the  faintest  tinge 
of  selfishness.  "  To  me  all  is  joy  ;  "  trie" 
Bible  words  are  the  dominant  note,  which 
rings  full  and  clear  through  all  his  utter 
ances  concerning  himself.  When  his 
family  had  been  cared  for  and  the  edu 
cation  of  his  minor  children  secured  by 
means  of  collections  at  the  North,  the  one 
shadow  departed  from  his  soul.  But  even 
this  anxiety  never  drew  from  him  a  sickly, 
sentimental  word,  and  its  removal  does 
not  cause  his  imagination  to  soar  even  an 
inch  above  the  sober  ground  of  reality. 
He  writes  to  his  wife,  "  Helping  poor 
widows  and  their  children  is  not  much 
more  romantic  than  trying  to  help  poor 
negroes."  He  is  —  I  repeat  it  —  no  en 
thusiast,  no  fanatic  in  the  common  accep 
tation  of  the  term ;  and  it  is  precisely  for 


1 66  John  Brown. 

this  reason  that  his  character  makes  so 
powerful  an  impression.  There  is  no 
gloss  about  him  ;  he  is  all  substance.  His 
terrible  earnestness  compels  people  in 
spite  of  themselves  to  believe  in  his  moral 
greatness,  and  the  touching  moderation 
with  which  he  gives  his  executioners,  con 
sidered  simply  as  men,  more  than  their 
due,  takes  away  the  repellant  effect  of  the 
one-sided  roughness  and  rigidity  of  his 
jnoral  convictions.  He  gave  the  highest 
proof  a  man  can  give  of  the  genuineness 
of  these  convictions ;  for  their  sake  he 
staked  his  life  and  that  of  his  children, 
without  the  possibility  of  any  selfish  ad 
vantage,  and  when  he  lost,  he  did  not  regret 
;what  he  had  done.  "  Time  and  the  honest 
verdict  of  posterity,"  said  he,  "  will  justify 
all  my  actions."  Millions  of  eyes  were 
fastened  upon  him  in  anxious  expectation, 
to  see  whether  he  would  not  betray  at  the 
last  moment  that  he  was  wearing  a  mask, 


John  Brown.  167 

even  though  this  mask  might  be  woven  of 
the  thinnest  gauze  wire.  But  after  he  had 
stood  ten  minutes  like  a  statue  with  the 
rope  round  his  neck  and  the  cap  drawn 
over  his  eyes,  the  millions  drew  a  deep 
breath,  —  he  was  wholly  pure,  wholly  true. 
And  this  is  why  John  Brown's  life  and 
death  struck  the  minds  and  consciences  of 
the  North  with  a  far  mightier  blow  than  the 
Lundys,  Garrisons,  and  Douglases  could 
deal  with  their  most  heartfelt  speeches. 

Brown  recognized  fully  the  magnitude' 
of  the  impression  which  he  and  his  deed 
made  on  the  North,  and  it  was  through 
this  impression  that  he  for  the  first  time 
fully  appreciated  what  he  had  done.  He 
did  not  perceive  that  his  undertaking 
could  not  have  succeeded  under  any  cir 
cumstances  ;  but  he  did  see  that  his  fail 
ure  and  its  consequences  achieved  much 
greater  results  than  its  most  complete 
success  could-  have  done.  His  acknowl 


- 


1 68  John  Brown. 

edgment  that  he  had  been  led  by  God  in 
the  best  way  when  he  delivered  himself 
through  his  own  folly  into  the  hands  of 
his  enemies  was  not  merely  owing  to  his 
Christian  faith,  but  to  a  clear  insight  into 
the  facts.  "  I  can  leave  to  God,"  he  writes, 
"  the  time  and  manner  of  my  death,  for  I  be 
lieve  now  that  the  sealing  of  my  testimony 
before  God  and  man  with  my  blood  will  do 
far  more  to  further  the  cause  to  which  I 
\  have  earnestly  devoted  myself,  than  any- 
|  thing  else  I  have  done  in  my  life."  And 
a  few  days  later,  u  My  health  improves 
slowly,  and  I  am  quite  cheerful  concerning 
my  approaching  end,  since  I  am  convinced 
that  I  am  worth  infinitely  more  on  the  gal 
lows  than  I  could  be  anywhere  else." 

The  most  intelligent  men  of  the  South 
can  hardly  have  failed  to  recognize  the 
truth  of  this  assertion.  The  rumor  that 
Governor  Wise  would  pardon  Brown  if  he 
dared  to  follow  his  personal  inclination 


John  Brown.  169 

was  perhaps  not  entirely  unfounded.1  Not 
all  intelligent  and  cultivated  people  are  so 
high-minded  when  they  recognize  the  noble 
qualities  of  an  enemy  as  to  take  pains  to 
acknowledge  them.  It  is  easy  to  understand 
that  even  such  men  as  Senator  Mason  could 
not  refrain  from  characterizing  Brown  by 
the  epithets,  "rough,"  "thief,"  "highway 
man,"  and  "  wretched  vagabond."  Governor 
Wise,  however,  honored  himself  by  giving 
Brown  the  character  of  a  man  of  extraor 
dinary  fearlessness,  truth,  and  fidelity  toj 
principle.  And  this  view  of  Brown's  char 
acter,  as  a  serious  warning  for  the  South,  * 
was  confirmed  so  emphatically  by  a  num 
ber  of  fanatical  slave-holders,  that  only 
half  of  the  wild  abuse  of  the  majority 
can  be  considered  genuine ;  the  other  half 
was  partly  political  manoeuvring,  partly 
the  hissing  of  powerless  rage.  How  much 
would  these  gentlemen  have  given  to  suc- 

1  Washington  letter  of  Nov.  5  to  the  "  Independent." 


170  John  Brown. 

ceed  in  their  attempt  to  point  out  a  direct 
complicity  on  the  part  of  prominent  Re 
publicans,  or  to  have  proved  that  Brown 
was  merely  the  weak-headed  tool  of  some 
other  man,  who,  safe  in  his  own  house,  in 
dulged  in  the  pleasure  of  being  fanatical ! 
It  seemed  to  them  a  sacred,  patriotic  duty 
to  tear  down  Brown's  character;  they 
understood  very  well  how  essential  it  was 
for  the  political  side  of  the  question  to 
consider  the  motives  which  actuated  him, 
though  they  had  been  of  no  use  to  him 
in  court.  How  often  they  had  scornfully 
called  on  the  Abolitionists  to  turn  their 
words  into  action  for  once,  and  to  come  to 
the  South,  where  the  ropes  were  already 
twisted  for  them !  Now  one  of  them  had 
come  and  had  substantiated  his  doctrine 
by  reckless  action,  and  he  had  not  even 
blinked  at  the  sight  of  the  rope.  Thou 
sands  who  till  then  had  been  unwilling  to 
believe  it  were  now  convinced  of  the  gen- 


John  Brown.  171 

uineness  of  the  moral  sentiment  of  the 
North  in  regard  to  slavery,  though  they 
still  stoutly  denied  the  fact.  Not  that 
they  had  really  believed  the  North  to  be 
swarming  with  John  Browns.  But  a  gen 
eration  had  not  yet  gone  by  since  Garrison 
had  been  dragged  through  the  streets  of 
Boston  with  a  rope  round  his  neck,  and 
the  houses  of  the  philanthropic  Tappans 
had  been  pulled  down  in  New  York  be 
cause  they  declared  that  every  compromise 
with  slavery  was  a  chimera  and  a  mon 
strosity.  And  this  short  space  of  time  had 
not  only  given  birth  successively  to  the 
Freedom,  Free-Soil  and  Republican  par 
ties,  but  the  Democratic  party  at  the  North 
had  been  split  and  its  foundations  shaken 
by  the  agitation  connected  with  slavery. 
Those  were  signs  of  the  times  which  the 
Southerners  had  not  passed  by  unheed 
ing.  But  John  Brown  first  revealed  to 
them  the  full  meaning  of  Calhoun's  decla- 


172  John  Brown. 

ration  that  the  spirit  of  abolitionism  unless 
its  germ  were  destroyed  could  never  be 
suppressed,  because  it  was  able  to  control 
the  pulpit  and  the  school,  and  that  it 
would  infallibly  break  up  the  Union,  be 
cause  it  was  a  religious  conviction.  Now 
they  only  hoped  against  their  own  con 
viction  that  the  stream  would  still  be  ar 
rested  in  its  course.  When  a  boat  at  the 
crossing  of  the  stream  above  Niagara  Falls 
is  turned  out  of  its  course,  every  stroke  of 
the  oars  is  watched  anxiously  from  both 
shores.  As  the  prow  of  the  boat  turns 
toward  the  middle  of  the  river,  cheeks 
grow  pale,  but  there  is  still  hope,  for  the 
oars  strike  the  waters  with  twofold  energy. 
When  the  rapids  have  been  reached,  the 
gazers  hold  their  breath,  for  there  is  only 
one  chance  of  rescue :  the  boatman  may 
succeed  in  casting  himself  on  one  of  the 
small  islands.  But  when  the  force  of  the 
current  has  driven  him  beyond  them,  then 


John  Brown.  173 

eyes  are  closed,  and  hearts  filled  with 
horror  exclaim,  "  God  have  mercy  on  his 
soul!"  For  seventy  years  the  politicians 
had  been  trying  in  vain  to  struggle  with 
the  boat  of  the  slavery  question  against 
the  mighty  stream  of  actual  facts  and 
against  the  moral  principles  which  were 
operating  among  these  facts.  The  boat 
had  been  constantly  driven  farther  and 
farther  down  stream,  but  hope  had  as  yet 
never  been  utterly  given  up,  though  fear 
had  often  gotten  the  upper  hand.  But 
now  John  Brown,  in  the  grim  earnestness 
of  his  religious  convictions,  had  put  his 
foot  on  the  boat  as  it  was  drifting  in  the 
rapids  and  given  it  a  mighty  shove  away 
from  the  shore  of  the  last  island.  True,  he 
was  the  first  to  fall  overboard  and  to  be 
hurried  to  the  depths  below.  But  was  there 
now  any  chance  that  the  leaky  skiff  should 
not  follow  him  over  the  Falls?  At  last  it 
dawned  on  the  people  that  even  suppos- 


174  John  Brown. 

ing  none  but  Henry  Clays  to  sit  in  the 
^councils  of  the  nation,  the  time  must  come 
when  it  would  be  absolutely  impossible  to 
throw  a  new  bridge  of  compromise  across 
the  chasm  which  had  been  opened  between 
North  and  South  by  the  contradictory 
principles  embodied  in  the  Constitution. 
Brown's  execution  sealed  the  irrepressible- 
ness  of  the  conflict  between  North  and 
South. 

Kapp  concludes  his  estimate  of  Brown 
with  the  words,  "  Vivat  sequens."  This 
conclusion  has  been  deprecated  by  people 
who  have  a  right  to  express  an  opinion  on 
American  affairs.  To  me  it  has  no  hard 
or  painful  sound.  The  sentence  is  the  vic 
torious  battle  shout  of  a  man  who  stands 
in  the  midst  of  the  fray.  But  a  battle  shout 
was  justified,  and  the  joy  of  victory  from 
which  it  sprang  is  like  the  breath  of  fresh 
morning  air  after  a  sultry  night  of  storm. 
There  were  still  many  of  whom  it  could  be 


John  Brown.  175 

said  in  the  words  of  the  Bible,  "  They 
call  out,  peace,  peace ! "  but  they  too  re 
ceived  the  answer,  "And  yet  there  is  no 
peace  ! "  The  era  of  constant  terror  was 
past.  On  November  24  the  "  Independent " 
wrote :  "  What  is  it  that  will  be  hanged  on 
the  gallows  before  the  eyes  of  all  men  ? 
Not  John  Brown,  but  slavery.  .  .  .  John 
Brown  swinging  on  the  gallows  will  ring 
the  knell  of  slavery."  The  frightful  end 
was  close  at  hand  from  which  a  new  and 
better  future  was  to  be  born.  One  year 
after  the  execution  of  Brown,  on  the  2Oth 
of  December,  1860,  South  Carolina  de 
clared  its  secession  from  the  Union,  and 
on  May  n,  1861,  the  Second  Massachu 
setts  Regiment  of  infantry  was  raised,  which  | 
was  first  to  sing  on  its  march  South,  — 

"  John  Brown's  body  lies  mouldering  in  the  grave, 
His  soul  goes  marching  on." 

H.   VON   HOLS? 


THE    FLOODS, 

A    POEM    BY   D.    A.    WASSON. 


THE   FLOODS, 
IN   MEMORY  OF  JOHN  BROWN. 

BY  D.    A.    WASSON. 


T     OOK  how  a  river,  brimmed,  then  heaped 
*-^    yet    more, 

Will  drown  his  banks,  and  flood  the  regions 

nigh, 
Spreading  with  bounty  terrible,  the  store 

Of  melting  mountain  and  dissolving  sky. 

So  may  a  soul  of  power,  an  Amazon 

Of  heavenly  purpose,  —  being  o'ergraced  with 
good, — 

Break  from  the  banks  of  prudence,  rolling  on 
A  kingdom's  quiet  his  aggression  rude. 

And  as  before  the  unappeased  urge 

Of  influence  hurrying  from  the  heart  of  heaven, 


180  The  Floods. 

He  rises,  widens  'yond  all  wonted  verge  — 

Still  on  —  o'er  hokl  and  hearth    of   Custom 
driven, 

We  that,  mayhap,  see  Order  in  the  guise 
Of  our  own  safety  only,  cry,  "  Behold, 

These  forces  rude  the  name  of  Law  despise ; 
They  mock  it  in  their  foray  fierce  and  bold." 

Hidden  from  timid  eyes  the  truth  will  be ! 

For,  lo  !   the  deluge,  too,  is  Order's  child ; 
Its  waters  hasten  but  from  sky  to  sea ; 

And  though  we  citizens  may  deem  them  wild, 

They  journey  as  they  must,  —  while  straying,  still 
Chasing  their  lawful  channel  where  it  goes, 

Nor  wid'ning  but  by  affluence  of  that  Will 
Which  out  of  heaven  beyond  containing  flows. 

And  when  at  length  their  swelling  tides  are  gone 
The  plain  lies  higher,  and  the  fertile  shore 

Is  farther  stretched  by  that  alluvion 

Whose  wealth  the  deluge  in  its  bosom  bore. 


The  Floods.  181 

Oh,  from  earth's  history  were  the  floods  away, 
Not  well  had  ripened  here  the  cosmic  plan ! 

For  many  a  happy  harvester  to-day 

Gathers  in  golden  corn  their  gifts  to  man. 

And  from  the  record  of  man's  deed  and  thought 
Were  razed  out  that  deluge-height  of  soul 

Which    makes    the    fountained    bosom    all   too 

fraught 
To  yield  effect  by  nice  and  legal  dole, 

Sure,  men  would  hiss  their  drawling  destinies, 
And  hist'ry  creep,  as  'twere,  through  cowherd 

lanes. 

Deep  ran  the  plough  where  high  the  harvest  is ; 
The    man-child  breathes   but  by  a  mother's 
pains. 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


THE   BUST   OF   JOHN   BROWN. 

/T~*VHE  effect  of  momentous  events  on  light- 
•*•  minded  persons  is  often  very  slight;  but 
on  serious  men  they  leave  an  indelible  impres 
sion,  which  usually  shows  itself  in  the  aspect  of 
the  face.  Especially  do  wounds  and  suffering 
deepen  the  expression  of  the  countenance,  and 
bring  out  the  features  in  a  strong  and  pure 
relief.  Mr.  E.  A.  Brackett,  when  he  returned 
from  Charlestown,  Va.,  in  November,  1859,  said 
to  the  lady  who  had  commissioned  him  to 
make  a  marble  bust  of  John  Brown  :  "  You 
have  never  seen  John  Brown !  I  mean  that  no 
one  who  has  not  seen  him  in  prison  can  be  said 
to  have  seen  him  at  his  very  best.  He  is  glori 
ous  to  look  upon  !  "  It  was  under  this  impres 
sion  that  the  sculptor  began  his  work,  and  in  a 
short  time  produced  a  work  of  art  which  in  con- 


1 86  Appendix. 

ception  at  least  might  compare  well  with  any  of 
the  heads  of  Greek  divinities,  though,  like  all 
modern  work,  it  falls  far  short  of  them  in  execu 
tion.  It  is  too  narrow  to  be  purely  Greek,  and 
this  peculiarity,  which  is  more  noticeable  in  the 
photograph  than  in  the  bust  itself,  cannot  be 
wholly  accounted  for  on  the  ground  that  Brown 
was  a  native  of  New  England.  The  sculptor, 
however,  has  been  most  fortunate  in  moulding  a 
face  in  which  strong  Roman-like  features  are 
united  with  perfect  classic  repose.  The  eyes 
have  an  expression  as  if  looking  into  the  far 
distance,  as  we  look  at  clouds  beyond  the  hori 
zon.  The  lines  about  the  mouth  resemble  those 
on  the  Zeus  which  is  attributed  to  Phidias. 
These  lines  are  rarely  seen  in  real  life,  but  they 
can  be  noticed  in  all  the  pictures  of  John  Brown, 
and  are  no  invention  of  the  artist.  It  seems  as 
if  thus  Constantine  must  have  looked,  and  the 
great  Christian  emperors,  of  whose  appearance 
we  have  no  good  record,  for  Greek  art  had  died 
out  before  their  time.  It  must  have  been  the 
pose  of  the  head  and  the  aspect  of  great  moral 
force  which  led  Sumnerto  compare  it  to  Michel- 


Appendix.  187 

angclo's  Moses,  for  otherwise  there  is  no  re 
semblance.  Neither  does  it  resemble  decidedly 
any  other  work  in  marble  that  I  have  anywhere 
seen.  It  is  somewhat  idealized,  —  for  how  other 
wise  can  the  spirit  of  man  be  represented  in 
cold  marble? — but  not  too  much  so.  Compared 
in  this  respect  with  Crawford's  Beethoven,  it  is 
a  realistic  likeness.  Mr.  Brackett  writes,  "  As 
to  the  bust  of  John  Brown,  I  can  only  say  that 
I  intended  it  as  a  physical  and  mental  likeness 
of  the  man.  Your  father,  Wendell  Phillips,  and 
Dr.  S.  G.  Howe  expressed  their  entire  approba 
tion  of  it  as  a  likeness."  It  was  at  first  placed 
on  exhibition  among  the  busts  of  the  Roman 
emperors  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  and  Mrs. 
Brown,  coming  upon  it  there  without  previous 
intimation,  recognized  it  and  wept  Idealized 
or  not,  it  represents  John  Brown  much  better 
than  the  pictures  which  are  current  of  him,  de 
signed  from  bad  photographs  or  daguerreo 
types.  There  are  peculiarities  of  light  and 
perspective  in  photography  which  make  its  re 
sults  always  uncertain  and  in  many  cases  quite 
unreliable.  The  best  photographs  are  always 


1 88  Appendix. 

in  slight  variation  from  their  subjects,  and  bad 
ones  are  only  better  than  no  pictures  at  all. 
Mont  Blanc  as  seen  from  the  Mauvais  Pas  is  a 
sky-piercing  dome,  but  in  a  photograph  taken 
from  the  same  point  of  view  it  appears  as  a  spot 
of  light  too  small  to  attract  attention.  Every 
one  must  have  felt  the  mental  shock  which 
arises  from  the  first  look  at  the  photograph  of 
an  intimate  friend.  John  Brown  himself  had  a 
stern  but  friendly  and  attractive  countenance; 
ladies  admired  him,  and  little  children  went  to 
him,  which  they  would  hardly  have  done  had 
he  looked  as  most  of  these  pictures  represent 
him. 


Appendix.  189 


THE  JOHN   BROWN    MEDAL. 

THIS  medal  has  finally  been  deposited  by 
Mrs.  Brown  in  the  museum  of  the  Kansas  State 
Historical  Society  at  Topeka.  In  1870  a  com 
mittee  of  leading  French  philanthropists  was 
appointed  at  a  meeting  held  in  Paris  to  superin 
tend  the  construction  of  a  handsome  gold  medal 
in  honor  of  the  martyr  of  Harper's  Ferry. 
Such,  however,  was  the  confusion  which  en 
sued  upon  the  Franco-German  war  that  the 
plan  was  not  carried  out  until  1874,  in  the 
autumn  of  which  year  it  was  received  by  Mrs. 
Brown  at  North  Elba,  N.  Y.  The  following  let 
ter  accompanied  it :  — 

{Translation^) 

PARIS,  Oct.  21,  1874. 
To  MADAME,  WIDOW  OF  JOHN  BROWN. 

MADAME,  —  Many  years  have  passed  away  since  the 
day  when  your  noble  husband  completed  the  sacrifice 
of  a  life  devoted  to  the  most  benevolent  of  causes. 
From  the  gallows  where  he  was  hung  has  gone  forth 


1 90  Appendix. 

this  cry  of  universal  indignation,  which  has  been  the 
signal  for  the  complete  deliverance  of  a  disinherited 
race.  Honor  to  him  and  his  worthy  sons,  together 
with  his  widow  !  To  the  benedictions  with  which  the 
present  century  follows  their  memory  those  of  future 
centuries  will  be  added.  Such  thoughts  must  produce, 
Madame,  a  great  alleviation  of  your  grief;  but  you 
have  claimed  the  best  compensation  for  your  afflictions 
from  this  superior  mandate,  that  above  the  poor  justice 
of  men  soars  the  supreme  justice,  which  leaves  no 
good  action  without  its  recompense,  neither  any  crime 
without  punishment.  You  will  also  receive,  we  hope, 
with  a  feeling  of  solace  this  witness  of  the  sympathy  of 
the  French  republicans,  the  expression  of  which  would 
have  arrived  less  tardily  but  for  the  long  and  cruel 
ordeals  through  which  our  unfortunate  country  has 
just  passed. 

We  beg  you,  Madame,  to  accept  the  homage  of  our 
profound  respect. 

In  the  name  of  all  their  colleagues  the  undersigned 
members  of  the  committee  on  subscription. 

VICTOR  HUGO,  PATRICE  LARROQUE, 

ETIENNE  ARAGO,  Louis  BLANC, 

CAPRON,  CH.  L.  CHASSIN, 

MELVIL  BLONCOURT,  LAURENT  PICHAT, 

EUGENE  PELLETON,  V.  SCHOELCHER, 

L.    GORNET. 


Appendix.  191 

Certainly  the  French  hold  the  first  place 
among  nations  in  their  sympathy  and  encour 
agement  for  struggling  humanity.  Among  the 
names  of  this  committee  Victor  Hugo  and 
Louis  Blanc  alone  are  popularly  known  in  this 
country,  but  the  others  are  also  distinguished 
in  France,  as  distinguished  and  respectable  as 
the  names  of  William  M.  Evarts,  John  A.  Low 
ell,  or  George  W.  Childs  are  on  the  Atlantic 
seaboard. 

Etienne  Arago,  born  at  Perpignan,  1802,  not 
the  astronomer,  but  a  litterateur  who  has  written 
a  great  many  light  comedies.  He  is  also  a  re 
publican  politician  of  decidedly  radical  tenden 
cies,  and  was  mayor  of  Paris  during  the  siege 
in  1870.  He  is  not  a  communist,  however,  and 
has  since  retired  from  politics. 

Victor  Schoelcher,  born  at  Paris,  1804,  a  dis 
tinguished  writer  and  politician  who  has  written 
much  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  His  first  pam 
phlet  appeared  in  1833,  with  the  title,  "  De  1'  des 
Noirs  et  de  la  Legislation  Coloniale;  "  and  he 
presided  over  the  commission  which  drew  up 
the  statute  abolishing  slavery  in  the  French 


1 92  Appendix. 

colonies  April  27,  1848.  He  was  representa 
tive  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  from  1848  to 
1851,  and  after  having  been  exiled  during  the 
reign  of  Napoleon  III,  was  again  from  1871  to 
1875,  when  he  was  chosen  a  life  member  of  the 
French  Senate,  —  most  surely  a  remarkable  and 
highly  honorable  career. 

Patrice  Larroque  was  born  at  Beauve,  Cote 
d'Or,  March  27,  1801,  and  died  in  Paris  in  1879. 
He  was  a  professor  of  philosophy,  and  has  writ 
ten  mostly  on  philosophical  and  religious  sub 
jects.  One  of  his  books,  "  De  1'Esclavage  chez 
les  patrons  Chretiennes,"  published  in  1857, 
proves  him  to  have  been  an  Abolitionist. 

Eugene  Pelleton,  born  Oct.  29,  1813,  at 
Saint-Palais-sur-Mer,  was  in  early  life  a  journa 
list  and  author  of  somewhat  mystical  turn  of 
mind,  and  wrote  for  a  variety  of  newspapers. 
After  1863  he  became  a  politician,  and  during 
the  war  of  1870  he  was  a  member  of  the  Gov 
ernment  of  National  Defence,  and  since  then  he 
has  been  a  member  of  the  Senate.  He  is  a 
moderate  republican. 

Melvil  Bloncourt  was  born  at  Point-a-Pitre,  in 


Appendix.  193 

the  French  West  Indies,  Oct.  23,  1825,  a  law 
yer,  journalist,  author,  and  politician  of  radical 
and  socialistic  views.  He  was  an  important 
official  during  the  Paris  commune,  and  was  in 
1874  condemned  to  death  for  it  by  court  mar 
tial.  He  had  already  taken  French  leave,  how 
ever,  and  has  since  been  living  in  Switzerland. 
Probably  his  character  was  not  as  well  known 
at  the  time  this  committee  was  organized  as  it 
now  is. 

Charles  L.  Chassin,  born  at  Nantes,  Feb.  11, 
1831,  journalist  and  litterateur,  and  in  politics 
a  moderate  republican. 

Laurent  Pichat,  born  in  Paris,  1823,  is  a  poet, 
a  politician  of  the  advanced  republican  type, 
and  a  friend  of  Victor  Hugo's.  He  is  now  a 
senator  for  life. 

Louis  Blanc,  born  at  Madrid,  in  1813,  was 
a  journalist,  historian,  and  prominent  political 
agitator  in  1848.  His  exposure  of  the  corrupt 
methods  of  the  government  of  Louis  Philippe 
are  supposed  to  have  contributed  largely  to  its 
overthrow;  but  the  failure  of  his  impracticable 
socialistic  schemes  also  contributed  to  the  over- 
13 


1 94  Appendix. 

throw  of  the  revolutionary  government  in  whose 
counsels  he  had  too  much  influence.  He  lived 
in  exile  during  the  whole  period  of  the  second 
empire,  but  returned  to  France  in  1871,  and 
was  chosen  a  member  of  the  national  assembly. 
Although  a  visionary  thinker  and  a  prejudiced 
writer,  the  uprightness  of  his  life  and  purity  of 
his  motives  have  caused  Louis  Blanc  to  be  re 
spected  by  fair-minded  men  of  all  political  par 
ties.  He  took  no  part  in  the  Paris  commune  of 
1871,  and  his  socialistic  doctrines  are  of  so  mild 
and  peaceable  a  type  that  he  would  seem  to  be 
as  far  removed  from  the  anarchist  of  to-day 
on  the  one  hand  as  from  the  Bonapartes  on 
the  other.  That  pure-minded  but  impractical 
dreamers  often  do  mischief  in  the  world  of  reali 
ties  is  only  too  true,  but  whether  they  are  to  be 
blamed  for  it  is  another  question. 

Among  this  brilliant  company  of  gifted  and 
venerable  men  Melvil  Bloncourt  is  the  only 
name  which  seems  to  be  in  some  degree  un 
worthy  of  the  rest.  Is  there  not  commonly  a 
Judas  among  every  twelve  men?  Anarchists 
and  socialists  attach  themselves  to  John  Brown 


Appendix.  195 

as  barnacles  do  to  a  whale,  or  as  the  most  ec 
centric  forms  of  woman's  rights,  teetotalism,  and 
spiritism  formerly  attached  themselves  to  the 
early  Abolitionists.  Those  who  go  through  life 
with  such  a  veneration  for  form  as  never  to  see 
the  inside  of  anything  may  readily  confound 
John  Brown  with  the  anarchists,  simply  because 
the  actions  of  the  former  were  equally  revolution 
ary  with  the  principles  of  the  other ;  but  this  is 
no  less  a  blunder  than  it  would  be  to  mistake  the 
moon  for  the  sun  because  both  are  round  and 
of  about  the  same  size.\  John  Brown  made  war 
upon  a  concrete  case  of  political  injustice,  but 
the  anarchists  set  themselves  against  all  abstract 
political  right.  The  one  could  not  even  serve 
as  an  illustration  of  the  other,  even  if  reasoning 
by  comparison  were  not  the  most  fallacious 
form  of  logic.  The  anarchists  might  indeed 
learn  from  the  example  of  John  Brown's  life 
such  contentment  in  poverty,  such  disinterested 
pursuit  of  a  lofty  ideal,  and  such  reverence  for 
the  unseen  spirit  which  is  above  man,  as  might 
be  the  proper  corrective  for  their  envious  and 
materialistic  theories.  The  salutary  discipline 


1 96  Appt&dix. 

of  John  Brown's  camp  in  Kansas,  with  prayers 
morning  and  evening,  might  have  benefited 
their  moral  good  health,  as  it  is  supposed  to 
have  the  captured  border  ruffians.  The  anar 
chists  do  not  draw  their  mental  sustenance  from 
John  Brown's  life  and  principles,  but  as  Mr. 
William  M.  Salter  has  clearly  demonstrated  in  a 
dissertation  on  the  subject,  from  certain  English 
and  French  writers  on  political  economy,  the 
most  materialistic  of  all  sciences  that  have  as 
yet  been  discovered.  The  feudal  system  of  me 
diaeval  Europe  is  the  only  form  of  socialism 
which  has  ever  proved  successful,  and  it  is  prob 
able  that  if  socialism  should  ever  become  para 
mount  it  would  again  revert  after  a  series  of 
changes  to  a  similar  form. 


Appendix.  197 


LETTER 

TO    A    LADY    PATIENT    TO    WHOM    WAS     PROMISED    AN 
ACCOUNT   OF   A   VISIT   TO   JOHN    BROWN'S   GRAVE. 

SARANAC  LAKES,  July  27,  1865. 
DEAR  MRS.  H , 

I  promised  to  write  to  you  from  John  Brown's 
grave.  I  thought  while  there  of  my  promise; 
but  as  I  had  only  a  short  time  to  stay,  and  many 
people  were  visiting  the  spot,  I  have  postponed 
writing  to  you  until  now. 

I  am  at  Bartlett's,  —  the  prince  of  hosts  in 
these  mountain  regions,  —  who,  living  here  many 
years  with  his  charming  and  energetic,  warm 
hearted  wife,  makes  a  sort  of  paradise  for  lovers 
of  angling  and  shooting,  or  still  larger  numbers 
of  devotees  to  eating  delicious  trout  or  sweet, 
tender  venison-steaks.  In  this  little  bijou  of 
a  hotel,  and  with  the  sound  of  rushing  water 
falls  in  my  ears,  within  close  view  of  the  eter 
nal  hills,  and  while  breathing  the  clear,  cool  air 
of  heaven,  I  redeem  my  pledge. 


198  Appendix. 

I  stood  by  the  side  of  John  Brown's  grave 
yesterday. 

He  was,  or  rather  he  is  now,  one  of  my  God- 
sent  heroes, —  a  man  specially  allowed  to  appear 
at  the  appointed  hour  with  a  sort  of  John  the 
Baptist  mission,  and  who  sealed  that  mission 
with  his  blood.  I  thought  his  design  foolish 
and  wrong ;  and  how  foolish  was  my  thought 
as  I  consider  subsequent  events,  which  made 
him  the  leader  of  our  hosts  in  the  Civil  War, 
during  which  "  his  soul  was  marching  on,"  and 
compelled  even  his  enemies  to  admire  him  even 
while  they  sought  his  life. 

While  I  think  now  of  his  quiet  self-possession 
in  prison ;  his  brave  words  to  his  companions 
just  before  his  death;  his  admiration  of  the 
beauty  of  Nature  while  going  toward  the  place 
of  execution ;  his  thanks  to  his  jailer  and  others 
for  acts  of  kindness ;  his  walk,  firm  and  elastic, 
up  the  scaffold-step ;  his  gentleness  and  yet  his 
perfect  manliness  even  to  the  last,  —  my  rever 
ence  for  him  exceeds,  far  exceeds,  the  reverence  I 
have  for  any  other  being  save  Christ,  or  Socrates 
while  drinking  the  hemlock.  And  how  enno- 


Appendix.  1 99 

bling  is  such  an  example  as  Brown's  to  all  the 
race !  Knowing  him  to  be  mortal  like  ourselves, 
we  for  a  time  at  least  understand  the  fine  ex 
pression  made  use  of  by  Dr.  James  Walker  in 
one  of  his  sermons  :  "  There  is  the  power  of 
an  archangel  locked  up  in  the  breast  of  every 
man,  and  a  sufficient  motive  only  is  needed  to 
bring  it  forth." 

But  a  truce  to  all  my  musings !  You  want 
me  to  redeem  my  promise  and  to  describe  his 
tomb.  Most  fitting  is  the  spot;  nothing  could 
be  finer. 

It  had  been  raining  all  night,  and  the  morn 
ing  was  showery  when  we  started  from  Lower 
Jay,  a  small  village  in  the  town  of  North  Elba, 
in  New  York.  We  soon  struck  off  from  the 
main  road,  through  a  huge  swinging  gate,  and 
driving  along  through  a  field  of  grass,  soon 
entered  a  primeval  forest.  "  The  corpses  of 
great  old  trees,"  as  Holmes,  I  believe,  has  it, 
lay  at  the  feet  of  splendid  tall  oaks  and  deli 
cately  fringed  larches  or  rugged  wide-branch 
ing  pines.  The  leaves  glittered  in  the  morning 
sunlight,  and  the  air  was  sweet  as  honey  to  the 


2OO  Appendix. 

lips;  the  song  of  birds  was  in  our  ears.  The 
road,  a  simple  by-path  for  our  wheels,  mean 
dered  up  hill  and  down  for  nearly  three  quarters 
of  a  mile,  when  suddenly  we  emerged  into  a 
magnificent  "  clearing"  of  many  hundred  acres, 
lying  broadly  embosomed  in  an  amphitheatre 
of  mountains.  The  clouds,  which  had  been 
lowering  all  the  morning,  lifted  themselves  from 
the  summits  of  many  of  the  higher  peaks,  and 
some  of  the  clouds  became  so  fleecy  over  them 
as  to  let  us  see  the  morning  sun  playing  up 
over  their  loftiest  points.  The  scene  was  grand 
in  the  extreme.  A  finer  spot  for  the  tomb  of 
a  pious  and  brave  man  could  not  have  been  se 
lected  ;  and  I  could  not  help  feeling  how  much 
the  martyr  must  have  gained  in  strength  from 
his  very  residence.  "  I  will  lift  up  mine  eyes 
unto  the  hills,  whence  cometh  my  strength." 
I  am  sure  that  often  to  his  genuinely  pious 
soul,  a  lover  of  the  Bible,  the  whole  of  this 
noble  psalm  must  have  suggested  itself  to  him 
as  he  went  forth  in  the  morning  to  his  daily 
toil,  or  returned  from  it  at  eventide. 

John    Brown's    house   is  a  prominent  object, 


Appendix.  201 

and  the  only  one  in  sight,  —  a  simple,  plain 
wooden  structure,  with  a  larger  barn  near  by, 
in  which  I  saw,  as  I  passed  by,  a  fine  load  of 
newly  made  hay.  We  entered  the  front  door 
and  met  Mr.  Hinckly,  who  married  one  of  John 
Brown's  daughters. 

He  had  a  very  intelligent  countenance.  He 
was  one  the  "  chosen  band  "  (in  Kansas),  and 
had  a  sincere  reverence  for  his  great  leader 
and  for  the  objects  he  had  in  hand. 

Mr.  Hinckly  regards  Brown  as  the  pioneer 
—  as  in  fact  the  first  martyr  —  in  this  war.  I 
think  he  is  right  in  his  judgment  of  John 
Brown's  position  as  history  will  put  him. 

I  read  to  my  boys  and  my  brother  the 
touching  account  of  Brown's  death,  in  order 
to  impress  upon  my  young  companions  the 
real  nobleness  of  the  soul  whose  body's  rest 
ing  place  we  were  going  to  visit.  Eight  or 
ten  rods  from  the  door  is  seen  a  huge  bowlder, 
rising  about  ten  feet  high,  rugged  and  broad, 
and  having  a  rather  grand,  irregular  shape, 
making  four  massive  sides.  Directly  in  front 
of  one  of  these,  and  facing,  or  nearly  facing, 


2  o  2  Appendix. 

the  front  door  of  the  residence,  lies  John  Brown, 
"  alone  in  his  glory."  A  magnificently  broad 
sodded  tumulus  alone  marks  the  spot.  I  like 
its  size.  It  was  worthy  in  this  respect  to  be 
placed  over  the  remains  of  one  of  the  old 
Scandinavian  Vikings,  huge  and  simple  as  his 
own  great  nature.  It  is  surrounded  by  rose 
bushes,  a  little  neglected.  In  front  of  it,  and 
very  awkwardly  placed,  is  a  tall,  crumbling 
headstone,  given  originally  to  John  Brown  to 
mark  the  grave  of  his  father,  of  the  same  name. 
Below  the  name  of  the  father  and  time  of  his 
death  appears,  rudely  cut  and  easily  to  be  ef 
faced,  the  statement  that  another  John  Brown 
was  executed  at  Charlestown,  Va.,  1859.  On 
the  back  of  the  slab  were  the  names  of  the 
family;  but  it  was  all  sad,  as  we  thought,  and 
my  brother  William  and  I  almost  vowed  that 
we  would  send  up  a  good  stone-cutter,  who, 
after  removing  the  grotesque  and  inappropri 
ate  slab  to  another  part  of  the  lot,  should  be 
directed  to  cut  deeply  into  one  of  the  sides  of 
the  massive  bowlder  above  mentioned,  the  sim 
ple  words  "  John  Brown,"  in  large  letters  that 


Appendix.  203 

could  be  seen  at  a  glance  from  as  great  a  dis 
tance  as  one  could  see  the  rock  itself.  This 
could  be  done,  and  the  family  would  consent 
to  it. 

It  only  remains  for  some  of  us  who  believe 
that  such  a  man  is  worthy  of  such  a  memorial 
to  make  proper  arrangements  for  so  doing. l 
Respectfully  yours, 

HENRY  I.  BOWDITCH. 

1  This  was  accomplished  a  few  years  after  the  above 
letter  was  written.  Colonel  Francis  L.  Lee  and  Hon. 
George  S.  Hale  had  the  following  inscription  deeply  cut 
upon  the  bowlder,  so  that  neither  morbid  relic-hunting 
tourists  nor  the  storms  of  centuries  can  blot  it  out :  — 

JOHN    BROWN 


204  Appendix. 


UNFRIENDLY   CRITICISM   OF   JOHN 
BROWN. 

AT  the  time  of  John  Brown's  death,  now 
nearly  twenty-eight  years  ago,  his  praises  were 
celebrated  so  eloquently  by  Emerson,  Thoreau, 
Manning,  John  A.  Andrew,  Wendell  Phillips, 
and  others,  and  were  so  well  supported  by 
public  opinion,  that  it  seemed  as  if  his  fame 
had  been  set  on  an  enduring  basis  forever. 
Victor  Hugo  and  the  English  anti-slavery  peo 
ple  took  up  the  refrain  in  Europe,  and  the 
reverberation  of  it  had  not  died  away  on  either 
side  of  the  Atlantic,  before  the  civil  war  began, 
and  the  John  Brown  song  echoed  throughout 
the  land.  In  1867,  Phillips  said  of  Emerson 
that  after  all  his  chief  merit  lay  in  the  fact  that 
having  talked  about  heroism  all  his  life,  when 
the  hero  finally  came  he  knew  him. 

Now,  however,  as  usually  happens,  we  have 
an  ebb  tide  again.  The  opposition,  who  were 
formerly  constrained  to  silence  by  public  opin- 


Appendix.  205 

ion,  come  forward  now  to  argue  their  views  be 
fore  a  younger  generation,  in  which  there  dwells 
a  different  spirit  from  that  of  the  war  period. 
Take  any  man  out  of  his  own  time,  and  place 
him  in  another,  and  he  will  appear  to  great 
disadvantage.  Imagine  Socrates  in  the  age  of 
the  Antonines,  or  Martin  Luther  as  a  contem 
porary  of  Voltaire.  They  would  appear  as 
violent  or  meddlesome  persons.  So  if  we  take 
John  Brown  away  from  the  fearful  and  excit 
ing  period  of  his  career,  —  a  period  of  dark 
political  intrigues  and  inhuman  plots  against 
the  liberties  of  the  people,  while  the  first  shocks 
of  a  gigantic  revolution  were  agitating  the  most 
courageous  minds,  —  if  we  take  him  out  of  the 
element  in  which  he  lived,  and  study  him  with 
the  peaceful  and  commonplace  life  of  to-day 
as  a  background,  his  actions  may  appear  mon 
strous,  his  character  inhuman,  his  endeavor  a 
failure.  That,  however,  is  not  the  way  to  study 
an  historical  character.  We  should  either  place 
ourselves  in  sympathy  with  the  conditions  of  his 
life,  or  leave  him  alone,  and  interest  ourselves  in 
other  subjects. 


206  Appendix. 

Henry  Wilson,  in  his  hastily  constructed  his 
tory  of  the  anti-slavery  struggle,  led  the  way 
by  speaking  of  thjb  Harper's  Ferry  invasion  as 
a  serious  injury  to  the  prospects  of  the  Re 
publican  party]  This  is  the  natural  view  of  a 
broad-minded  but  timid  politician,  one  without 
much  historical  insight ;  but  it  is  a  point  diffi 
cult  to  prove,  since  the  Republican  party  was 
never  more  successful  than  during  the  next 
twelve  months.  In  Wilson's  own  State,  John 
A.  Andrew,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  preside  at 
a  meeting  called  to  raise  funds  for  John  Brown's 
family,  was  nominated  for  governor  with  enthu 
siasm,  and  easily  elected.  Next  came  an  article 
some  years  since  in  the  "  North  American  Re 
view,"  supposed  to  have  been  written,  or  perhaps 
instigated,  by  a  citizen  of  Kansas  who  formerly 
was  a  leading  spirit  in  the  Free-State  move 
ment,  but  afterward  was  eclipsed  by  bolder  and 
more  enterprising  leaders.  Having  now  outlived 
most  of  his  rivals,  he  takes  advantage  of  the 
fact  in  a  way  which  is  creditable  neither  to  his 
judgment  nor  intentions.  The  article  does  not 
even  pretend  to  be  an  ex  parte  statement,  but 


Appendix.  207 

is  a  direct  attack  on  John  Brown's  character, 
and  an  undervaluation  of  his  public  services. 
Fortunately  for  the  writer,  his  efforts  to  do  this 
have  small  chance  of  success,  and  we  trust  will 
be  forgotten  for  the  sake  of  his  earlier  services 
in  the  cause  of  freedom. 

Following  shortly  after  the  " North  American" 
article,  came  an  essay  on  John  Brown,  by  a 
Boston  gentleman,  read  and  presented  to  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  This  was 
also  a  direct  attack  upon  the  man.  In  it  he  is 
said  to  have  been  described  as  either  a  fanatic^ 
or  a  midnight  murderer,  and  Iguilty  of  lynch 
ing  five  innocent  Missourians  at  Pottawatomie.  \ 
Brown  may  have  been  a  fanatic  in  the  sense 
that  Peter  the  Hermit  and  Cromwell  were  fa 
natics,  not  in  the  sense  that  Marat  and  Wilkes 
Booth  were  fanatics.  In  regard  to  the  Potta 
watomie  executions,  nothing  probably  will  ever 
be  known  with  certainty.  Whether  Brown  was 
responsible  for  them  or  not,  the  Free-State  party 
certainly  were.  It  appears  to  have  been  a  case 
of  retaliatory  lynch  law.  A  number  of  Free- 
State  settlers  had  been  murdered  bv  Missou- 


208  Appendix. 

rians  in  a  cowardly  and  brutal  manner  that 
would  have  disgraced  highwaymen.  The  mur 
derers  could  not  be  punished  by  course  of  law, 
and  in  most  cases  could  not  be  identified.  We 
know  in  our  own  time  what  ruffians  have  in 
fested  the  border  counties  of  Missouri,  —  the 
James  brothers  and  others.  The  men  who 
committed  these  atrocities  were  indirectly  sup 
ported  by  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
It  is  not  in  the  nature  of  frontier  men  to  endure 
such  things  without  reprisals;  they  would  not 
endure  them  from  Indians,  nor  from  any  other 
species  of  human  fiend.  The  five  Missourians 
who  were  shot  or  stabbed  on  Pottawatomie 
Creek,  may  not  have  committed  these  atrocities 
themselves,  but  they  were  known  to  have  been 
members  of  the  lawless  bands  which  were  ter 
rorizing  the  country  round  about.  That  they 
were  "  innocent  and  blameless  men  "  is  as  un 
likely  and  as  difficult  to  prove  as  Wilson's 
statement  that  the  Harper's  Ferry  invasion  in 
jured  the  prospects  of  the  Republican  party. 
It  was  a  horrible  affair,  and  whether  justifiable 
or  not,  who  shall  say?  To  return  good  for  evil 


Appendix.  209 

does  not  work  well  in  all  cases ;  and  vicarious 
atonement  is  also  a  Christian  doctrine.  Among 
the  Free-State  men  of  Kansas  at  the  time  there 
seems  to  have  been  a  difference  of  opinion  in 
regard  to  it;  but  we  have  sufficient  evidence 
in  Governor  Robinson's  cordial  indorsement  of 
John  Brown  to  the  friends  of  Kansas  in  the 
Eastern  States  some  months  afterward  that  it 
did  not  injure  him  with  the  leaders  of  the  party. 
Caesar,  whose  merciful  nature  stands  out  alone 
among  the  soldiers  of  antiquity,  once  utterly 
destroyed  a  tribe  of  Germans  who  had  invaded 
Gaul,  men,  women,  and  children.  In  ordinary 
men,  temporary  aberrations  are  usually  caused 
by  outside  influences,  but  in  the  case  of  a 
strong,  consistent,  and  determined  character, 
they  must  be  interpreted  in  some  other  way. 
The  lives  of  such  men  are  like  problems  in 
algebra,  —  the  known  terms  give  us  the  solution 
of  the  unknown. 

Professor  von   Hoist  refers  to  the  Pottawat- 

omie  matter  as  a  case  of  somewhat  irregular 

lynch  law,  and  it  has  occurred  to  me  that  the 

perfect    solution   of    it    can    be   attained    only 

14 


2  i  o  Appendix. 

through  a  careful  study  of  the  customs  and 
traditions  of  Western  frontier  life.  People  who 
live  in  comfortable  city  houses,  with  a  policeman 
within  call  of  the  telephone,  cannot  easily  con 
ceive  what  it  is  to  be  alone  at  night  on  the  wild 
prairie  with  wife  and  children  only,  unprotected 
except  by  one's  own  rifle,  and  one's  nearest 
neighbor  perhaps  something  more  of  a  tiger 
than  a  human  soul.  Laws  which  apply  in  the 
former  case  are  of  no  value  in  the  other,  for 
the  excellent  reason  that  they  cannot  be  exe 
cuted.  John  Brown  was  reared  in  that  same 
frontier  life,  and  was  well  versed  in  its  criminal 
code.  It  is  likely  that  he  acted  as  his  father 
and  his  friends  would  have  done  had  a  small 
band  of  Indians  persisted  in  establishing  them 
selves  too  near  at  hand  for  public  security. 
The  situation  of  that  handful  of  Free-State  set 
tlers  at  Ossawatomie  was  truly  a  terrible  one.1 
Peaceable  themselves  and  wishing  harm  to  no 
one,  they  felt  that  they  were  liable  to  be  at 
tacked  at  any  time,  either  when  at  work  in 

1  See  Sanborn's  "  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Brown," 
pp.  259  281. 


Appendix.  2 1 1 

their  fields  or  asleep  in  their  beds,  by  an 
enemy  overwhelming  in  numbers,  their  houses 
burned,  their  wives  insulted,  and  driven  from 
their  claims,  fortunate  if  they  escaped  with 
their  lives.  The  Doyles  and  Shermans  were 
an  advanced  post  of  this  enemy,  spies  almost 
in  their  camp.  Only  two  courses  lay  open  to 
them,  —  either  to  move  away  and  leave  the 
fruits  of  their  toil  to  others;  or  to  get  the 
start  of  their  opponents,  brush  away  the  Doyles 
and  Shermans,  and  clear  the  decks  for  action. 
There  was  no  middle  course,  nor  help  to  be 
expected  from  others.  Brave  men  will  usually 
risk  their  lives  to  defend  their  property,  and 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race  does  not  bear  oppres 
sion  with  equanimity.  Least  of  all  was  John 
Brown  the  person  to  take  a  backward  step  in 
an  affair  of  this  kind ;  he  could  no  more  be 
cuffed  with  impunity  than  a  Spanish  cavalier 
of  the  best  period.  He  was  deliberate  and 
cool-headed,  but  there  was  spirited  dynamite 
inside  of  him.  The  two  following  cases  of 
frontier  justice  may  place  this  dubious  matter 
in  a  clearer  light.  In  1878,  a  Ute  Indian  was 


2 1 2  Appendix. 

found  dead  in  the  Colorado  forest  with  a  bullet- 
hole  in  his  body.  A  detachment  of  the  tribe 
immediately  proceeded  to  the  nearest  settle 
ment  and  shot  the  first  white  man  they  met 
with,  sitting  on  the  piazza  of  his  own  ranch. 
There  was  great  indignation  in  the  community 
at  this  retaliatory  outrage,  but  I  was  informed 
that  both  state  and  federal  authorities  acqui 
esced  in  it  as  the  only  kind  of  justice  that 
Indians  could  obtain.  In  February,  1880,  I 
attended  a  trial  for  murder  in  Denver.  The 
prisoner  was  acquitted  by  the  jury,  mainly  on 
the  ground  that  the  murdered  man  had  some 
time  previously  threatened  his  life,  I  think  with 
a  revolver.  A  threat  of  violence  in  a  so  slightly 
regulated  community  is  necessarily  considered 
equal  to  an  overt  act,  or  at  least  to  the  prepa 
ration  for  one.  To  use  a  classical  comparison, 
the  Pottawatomie  affair  reminds  me  of  Ulysses' 
and  Diomed's  midnight  expedition  against  the 
Trojans. 

In  his  great  oration  on  "  The  Crime  Against 
Kansas,"  the  2Oth  of  May,  1856,  Charles  Sum- 
ner  gave  this  prophetic  warning  to  the  Demo- 


Appendix.  2 1 3 

cratic  Senators :  "  If  you  madly  persevere, 
Kansas  will  not  be  without  her  William  Tell, 
who  will  refuse  at  all  hazards  to  recognize  the 
tyrannical  edict,  and  this  will  be  the  beginning 
of  civil  war."  A  few  days  later  the  Pottawat- 
omie  executions,  as  Mr.  Sanborn  calls  them, 
took  place,  and  the  subsequent  fights  of  Black 
Jack  and  Ossawatomie  verified  Sumner's  pre 
diction.  John  Brown,  however,  was  in  this  re 
spect  unlike  Tell ;  he  did  not  risk  the  life  of 
his  son,  but  struck  directly  at  the  tyrant.  Bis 
marck  thinks  that  is  what  Tell  ought  to  have 
done.  European  history  is  filled  with  like  in 
stances  of  sudden  explosions  which  have  pre 
ceded  political  or  religious  revolutions,  popular 
feeling  concentrating  itself  in  a  small  group  of 
individuals.  The  Thirty  Years'  War  began  in 
this  way,  and  so  did  the  Hungarian  revolution 
of  1848,  a  struggle  for  independence  which  was 
greatly  applauded  in  America.  The  revolt 
of  Germany  against  Napoleon  in  1813  began 
with  collisions  between  the  French  troops  and 
the  populace  in  Berlin,  similar  to  the  Boston 
Massacre.  That  is  the  mistake  which  the  gen- 


2 1 4  Appendix. 

tlemen  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society 
make  now  in  regard  to  Crispus  Attacks.  Their 
estimate  of  him  is  not  historical  but  conven 
tional.  Evidently  they  do  not  realize  in  what 
shape  the  burning  passion  of  patriotism  may 
develop  itself  in  rude,  uncultured  natures. 
Upon  what  testimony  do  they  denounce  him 
as  a  "notorious  negro  spoiling  for  a  fight"? 
Even  if  that  were  the  fact,  as  possibly  it 
may  be,  it  would  not  necessarily  change  the 
character  of  the  act  in  which  he  lost  his  life. 
Rowdies  who  are  spoiling  for  a  fight  do  not 
commonly  expose  themselves  to  imminent 
death,  and  though  an  unlettered  man,  he 
seems  to  have  shown  such  a  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice  as  would  do  honor  to  any  college 
graduate.  Too  dull,  perhaps,  to  understand 
the  legal  relation  between  England  and  her 
colonies,  he  looked  upon  the  redcoat  soldiers 
only  as  instruments  of  an  oppression  against 
which  he  rebelled  with  all  his  might.  Upon 
which  side  were  the  sympathies  of  our  Histori 
cal  Society  in  1775,  or  during  the  dishonora 
ble  presidency  of  Buchanan,  and  the  crime 


Appendix.  2 1 5 

against  Kansas?  It  is  indeed  true  that  all 
the  members  of  that  society  are  not,  in  regard 
to  John  Brown  at  least,  of  the  same  mind, 
and  one  of  its  most  cultivated  and  honorable 
associates  has  made  a  vigorous  defence  there 
of  the  old  Puritan  hero,  as  I  believe  he  called 
him.  At  the  John  Brown  meeting  held  in 
November,  1859,  and  presided  over  by  John  A. 
Andrew,  the  pastor  of  the  Old  South  Church, 
Rev.  Mr,  Manning,  drew  a  parallel  between 
John  Brown_a.prl  C.rkpns  Attacks,  as  the  white 
man  who  was  sacrificing  himself  for  the  black 
race,  and  the  black  man  who  had  sacrificed 

himself  for  the  white   race.     It  would    not  be 

« 

just  to  John  Brown,  however,  to  carry  the 
comparison  beyond  an  historical  similarity, 
for  the  relative  importance  of  their  acts  differ 
as  greatly  as  the  men  themselves.  Finally,  Hay 
and  Nicolay  in  their  "Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln" 
have  given  a  disparaging  account  of  John  Brown 
which  is  much  more  dangerous  than  any  pre 
ceding  attack  upon  his  life  and  character. 

It  is   more   dangerous,   not   only  because   of 
the  large  circulation  of  the  book,  but  also  be- 


2 1 6  Appendix. 

cause  it  is  written  with  what  might  be  called 
the  negative  bias  of  impartiality,  as  man  is 
unconsciously  prejudiced  in  regard  to  a  certain 
action,  mentally  condemns  it  without  proper 
investigation,  and  then  decides  to  write  an  im 
partial  account  of  it.  This  I  think  is  what 
Hay  and  Nicolay  have  done  in  the  present  in 
stance,  and  the  mischief  of  it  is  that  it  gives 
their  writing  the  appearance  of  being  dispas 
sionate,  when  it  is  not  so  at  all.  Their  inten 
tions  are  doubtless  good,  but  they  do  not 
apprehend  the  processes  of  their  own  minds. 
They  would  do  John  Brown  justice  if  they  saw 
him  clearly  as  he  was ;  but  they  do  not  see  him 
clearly  as  he  was.  The  case  is  as  if  one  were 
to  judge  a  stained-glass  window  in  a  mediaeval 
church  by  its  dull  and  wire-covered  exterior. 
Go  within  the  church  and  look  at  it  with  the 
light  shining  through,  and  it  becomes  a  glorious 
spectacle.  John  Brown's  achievements,  looked 
at  from  the  outside  would  not  surpass  those  of 
Andreas  Hofer;  looked  at  in  the  light  of  their 
spiritual  significance,  and  he  becomes  the  most 
modern  type  of  a  world-hero.  It  is  one  of  the 


Appendix.  2 1 7 

materialistic  tendencies  of  our  time  that  writers 
come  more  and  more  to  consider  surfaces  only. 
This  is  what  Mr.  Howells  means  by  what  he 
calls  realism,  and  consequently  he  relegates 
heroism  to  the  infatuations  of  the  past.  Man 
kind  can  always  be  divided  into  classes ;  those 
to  whom  "  the  primrose  by  the  river's  brim  " 
is  a  picture  of  heavenly  love  and  purity,  and 
those  to  whom  it  is  only  a  yellow  primrose. 
This  may  not  be  democratic,  but  according  to 
the  view  of  these  writers  neither  is  heroism  a 
democratic  virtue.  Democracy,  as  its  name 
implies,  is  a  principle  of  politics,  and  has  no 
place  in  ethics  or  literature. 

John  Brown,  moreover,  was  a  unique  char 
acter,  so  different  from  his  cotemporaries  that 
even  among  his  admirers  few  can  be  said  to 
have  penetrated  to  the  very  heart  of  the  man. 
No  one  should  be  blamed  for  not  understanding 
him,  or  for  misunderstanding  him.  There  are 
excellent  painters  who  do  not  appreciate  the 
drawings  of  Da  Vinci,  and  good  composers  who 
cannot  realize  the  superiority  of  Bach's  music. 
It  is  not  any  fault  of  theirs,  but  the  accident 


2 1 8  Appendix. 

of  temperament,  education,  or  mental  capacity. 
What  is  difficult  of  comprehension  attracts  and 
interests  the  civilized  man ;  but  the  pedant  de 
spises  it,  and  the  barbarian  hates  it.  We  should 
always  endeavor  to  rpsppr.f  w^t  wf  Hn  ru^^^^. 
prehend^_for  so  only  can  we  hope  finally  to 
comprehend  it. 

In  Hay  and  Nicolay's  account  of  Brown, 
there  is  a  certain  kind  of  disparagement  from 
beginning  to  end.  Everything  about  him  is 
represented  in  the  hardest,  most  uncharitable 
way.  He  is  spoken  of  as  a  man  generally 
urisu£££ssful  in  a  variety  of  vocations;  his  ser 
vices  in  Kansas  are  discredited ;  his  presumed 
connection  with  the  Pottawatomie  affair  is  en 
larged  upon  and  presented  in  an  unfavorable 
light;  he  is  represented  as  practising  deceit 
on  the  Kansas  aid  committees ;  his  invasion 
of  Virginia  is  criticised  from  a  military^-fi^-nt 
of  view,  certainly  the  most  inapplicable  of  all 
points  of  view  from  which  to  see  it ;  he  is 
described  as  a  man  /'  erf  unbounded  courage 
and  little  wisdom;  crude,  visionary  ideality;/' 
of  "  ambition  curbed  to  irritation ;  ...  in  Ian- 


Appendix.  219 

guage  and  conduct  he  was  clean,  but  coarse; 
honest,  but  rude;  .  .  .  his  courage  partook  of 
the  recklessness  of  insanity;  "  and  finally  the 
victor  of  the  Ossawatomie  fight  is  represented 
as  "  of  military  ability  too  insignificant  even  for 
ridicule."  Is  this  one  of  the  results  of  Mr. 
Howells's  doctrine  of  realism  in  writing?  Surely 
nothing  could  be  more  unsympathetic. 

I  will  add  one  short  paragraph  to  show  more 
plainly  the  temper  of  this  historian :  - 

"  But  merely  to  conceive  great  enterprises  is  not  to 
perform  them,  and  every  after-step  of  John  Brown  re 
veals  his  lamentable_jy£akness  and  utter  inadequacy 
for  the  heroic  role  to  which  he  fancied^  hioisgjf  called. 
His  first  blunder  was  in  divulging  all  his  plans  to 
Forbes,  an  utter  stranger,  while  he  was  so  careful  in 
concealing  them  from  others.  Forbes,  as  ambitious 
and  reckless  as  himself,  of  course  soon  quarrelled  with 
him  and  left  him,  and  endeavored  first  to  supplant, 
and  then  betray  him." 

As  these  remarkable  statements  have,  to  use 
a  geological  expression,  all  the  same  "  dip,"  I 
shall  only  attempt  to  reply  to  one  or  two  of 
them,  which  may  do  for  the  whole.  In  regard 


22O  Appendix. 

to  John  Brown's  conduct  and  language,  it  was 
sufficiently  refined  for  him  to  appear  to  advan 
tage  among  the  most  cultivated  men  and  women 
of  Boston.  Never  was  a  man  more  transparent. 
His  ethical  purity,  and  the  innate  nobility  of  his 
spirit  were  not  written  on  his  face,  but  shone 
through  it.  It  was  this  which  always  inspired 
confidence  in  him  among  high-minded  men,  as 
among  vulgar  people  he  was  often  despised  for 
the  very  same  reason.  His  handwriting,  though 
somewhat  cramped,  was  in  general  style  much 
like  Abraham  Lincoln's ;  and  Emerson,  in  the 
deliberative  reflection  of  after  years,  coupled  his 
address  to  the  court  in  Virginia  with  Lincoln's 
Gettysburg  speech  as  "the  most  eloquent  words 
of  the  present  century."  Mr.  Lowell  also,  I  be 
lieve,  has  pronounced  Brown's  letter  in  which  he 
describes  the  incidents  and  adventures  of  his 
early  life  to  be  one  of  the  finest  pieces  of  auto 
biography  extant.  In  style,  his  writing  is  plain, 
sensible,  and  kind,  which  are  also  the  distinctive 
characteristics  of  Lincoln's  speeches. 

People    who    are    exclusively    non-resistants, 
and  those  who  know  what  is   at  the  bottom  of 


Appendix.  221 

the  sea,  may  satisfy  themselves  that  there  was 

n  r^nppH^  prf<fcrh  ti  n  g^_j[^]^lJ^T^5^;   bi 1 1    they 

will  never  convince  many  others.  What  has 
been  we  sometimes  know;  what  might  have 
been  who  can  tell?  nThat  the  Civil  War  began 
in  Kansas  has  become  a  proverbial  expression. ) 
If  fighting  was  necessary  in  one  case  it  was  in 
the  other  jC^nd  there  has  never  been  any  ques 
tion  but  that  John  Brown  did  the  bravest  fight 
ing  against  the  Missouri  invaders  of  Kansas.) 
Colonel  Lane  is  credited  with  having  beerr^a 
brave  man  and  ready  for  a  fight,  but  he  never 
had  much  chance,  for  Captain  Brown  was  al 
ways  before  him.  What  would  the  Free-State 
settlers  have  done  without  Brown  and  Lane  to 
defend  them?  I  think  they  would  have  mostly 
emigrated  to  Nebraska,  and  left  Kansas  to  be 
filled  up  with  slave-holders.  "  Courage,"  Dr. 
Johnson  said,  "  is  the  most  important  of  all  vir 
tues,  for  without  it  the  others  are  of  no  avail." 
The  books  which  have  been  written  to  prove 
that  the  [Civil  War  might  have  been  avoided  by 
a  few  more  concessions  to  the  slavocracy,  and 
that  Buchanan's  policy  toward  the  rebellious  ] 


222  Appendix. 

South  was  dictated  by  patriotic  motives,  are 
based  upon  a  misunderstanding  of  human  na 
ture,  and  their  writers  can  have  but  a  weak 
sense  of  national  honor.  John  Brown's  invasion 
of  Virginia  was  only  the  continuation  of  hostil 
ities,  the  inevitab4ir  change  from  a  successful 
defence  Iqjpffensive  operations. 

The  Harper's  Ferry  attack  was  not  a  success 
from  a  military  point  of  view,  or  even  from  that 
of  guerilla  warfare;  but  to  call  John  Brown  an 
unsuccessful  man  is  to  deny  history.  It  is  diffi 
cult  to  understand  how  it  could  have  been 
otherwise  than  unsuccessful,  but  those  who  have 
accomplished  any  great  work  by  their  own  un 
aided  exertions,  and  have  not  been  mere  flies  on 
the  wheel  of  prosperity,  —  those  know  right  well 
the  narrow  line  that  divides  success  from  failure. 
John  Brown,  like  Garibaldi,  possessed  a  genius 
for  irregular  warfare,  a  very  rare  kind  of  genius. 
The  methods  of  such  men  are  a  secret  which, 
like  that  of  Titian's  coloring,  dies  with  them. 
How  can  any  of  us  who  are  wholly  incapable  of 
such  great  actions  pretend  to  judge  them  with 
exactness?  Indeed,  in  a  higher  sense,  as  Lin- 


Appendix.  223 

coin  said  at  Gettysburg,  we  have  no  right  to 
judge  them.  Not  to  be  satisfied  with  their  re 
sult  would  be  ungenerous.  The  ignominy  of 
failure  fell  at  John  Brown's  feet  like  broken 
chains,  and  the  moral  grandeur  of  the  man 
shone  forth  from  the  Charlestown  jail  with  such 
a  light  that  friends  and  foes  bowed  their  heads 
in  homage,  and  men  of  all  nations  rose  to  their 
feet  with  a  shout  of  applause.  It  was  like  a 
bright  meteor  crossing  the  black  sky  of  Ameri 
can  politics  and  disappearing  forever.  He 
shook  the  South  as  Neptune  was  fabled  to 
shake  the  nations  with  his  trident,  and  Lincoln's 
army  which  invaded  Virginia  twenty  months 
afterward  was  much  less  successful  and  produced 
less  consternation. 

"  But  John  Brown  was  a  rebel,  and  Lincoln  the 
lawfully  elected  President,"  say  alike  the  com 
fortable  aristocrat  depending  on  his  traditions 
and  the  honest  democrat  holding  fast  to  party 
principles.  So  was  Henry  Tudor  a  rebel  when 
he  fought  against  Richard  III.,  and  William  of 
Orange  when  he  opposed  the  Spaniard,  and  so 
were  Washington  and  Mirabeau  rebels.  Those 


224  Appendix. 

men  had  law  and  authority  pitched  against  them. 
They  were  the  champions  of  a  higher  law  and 
acted  under  it.  When  laws  become  unendura 
ble,  when,  as  Lowell  says,  "  right  is  ever  on  the 
scaffold,  wrong  forever  on  the  throne,"  then  re 
bellion  is  a  virtue  and  the  higher  law  comes  into 
play.  Froude  states  it  exactly  when  he  says, 
"  High  treason  is  either  the  greatest  of  crimes 
or  the  noblest  of  virtues;  "  which  it  is  depends 
upon  the  circumstances  of  the  case.  Webster 
wished  to  know  where  the  higher  law  was  to  be 
found ;  but  when  there  is  no  such  law  in  the 
hearts  of  men  the  laws  in  the  statute-books  have 
little  force,  as  is  the  case  in  Mexico  and  por 
tions  of  South  America.  On  another  occasion 
Webster  also  might  have  admitted  this,  for  if  he 
was  not  a  man  of  keen  moral  sense,  neither  was 
he  a  narrow  legal  pedant.  There  is  at  least 
one  form  of  higher  law  which  even  the  most 
pedantic  lawyers  are  compelled  to  recognize, 
and  that  is  the  right  of  revolution.1  The  de- 

1  There  can  be  no  stronger  statement  of  the  right 
of  revolution  than  is  to  be  found  in  Webster's  reply 
to  Colonel  Hayne. 


Appendix,  225 

feated  party  in  a  revolution  rarely,  if  ever,  justi 
fies  it,  and  the  successful  party  invariably 
justifies  it;  but  every  one  is  sure  to  justify  some 
revolution.  ^Southerners  might  condemn  the 
acts  of  John  Brown,  but  the  bombardment  of 
Fort  Sumter  was  just  as  illegal.  /  Englishmen 
may  think  that  we  separated  from  the  mother 
country  without  sufficient  cause,  but  they  all 
justify  the  glorious  revolution  of  1688.  The 
French  jurists  of  the  restoration  were  not  so  un 
wise  as  to  attempt  a  return  to  the  legal  status  of 
Louis  XVI. ;  and  when  Charles  X.  did  so  he 
was  immediately  dethroned.  It  was  the  higher 
law  which  Jennie  Geddes  appealed  to  when  she 
hurled  her  chair  at  the  Scotch  bishop  and  cried 
out,  "  Are  you  going  to  say  mass  in  kirk?  "  It 
was  the  liigkejMaw  which  our  forefathers  ap 
pealed  to  when  they  declared  "  No  taxation 
without  representation."  It  was  under  authority 
of  the  higher  law  that  Lincoln  issued  his  procla 
mation  of  freedom  to  the  slaves.  So  far  as  the 
practice  of  law  is  influenced  by  legal  principles 
rather  than  the  customs  of  mankind,  and  so  far 
as  legislators  in  framing  the  statutes  are  influ- 
15 


226  Appendix. 

enced  by  an  idea  of  right  and  justice,  just  so 
far  is  the  higher  law  recognized  and  accepted 
by  the  legal  profession.  Truly,  it  is  this  ideal 
of  justice  which  constitutes  the  higher  law. 

Hay  and  Nicolay,  however,  say  that  "  modern 
civilization  and  a  republican  government  re 
quire  that  all  coercive  reform  shall  act  by  au 
thority  of  law  only."  This  statement  is  almost 
worthy  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas  ;  for  while  it 
seems  broad  enough  to  cover  the  whole  ques 
tion,  it  contains  in  substance  only  a  vague  and 
unproven  political  theory.  Great  things  are  to 
be  hoped  of  republican  governments,  but  the 
history  of  our  own  would  show  that  they  are  not 
exempt  from  tyranny,  outrage,  and  the  perver 
sion  of  right.  |  Read  what  that  most  truthful  of 
historians,  Dr.  H.  von  Hoist,  says  of  the  admin 
istrations  of  Jackson,  Polk,  and  Pierce.  The 
United  States  in  1856,  with  the  noblest  states 
man  of  his  time  struck  down  at  his  desk  in  the 
Senate,  and  political  murders  supported  by  gov- 


authority   in    Kansas,    can 
called  an  instance  of  modejjidvilizatipjtj.     The 
Southern  States  at  that  time  were  in  a  condition 


Appendix.  227 

resembling  that  of  Italy  two  thousand  years  ago. 
That  they  were  so  was  wholly  owing  to  the  in 
stitution  of  African  slavery.  We  were  a  repub 
lic  in  form,  but  an  oligarchy  of  sixty  thousand 
slave-holders  had  absolute  possession  of  the 
central  government.  The  human  race,  however, 
is  governed  not  more  by  laws  than  it  is  by  senti 
ment,  and  it  was  the  sentiment  of  European  civ 
ilization,  of  the  civilization  of  New  England,  and 
of  the  sons  of  New  England  in  the  West,  which 
concentrated  itself  in  John  Brown,  and  drove 
him  to  his  desperate  deed.  Consecrated  like 
Metius  Curtius  he  leaped  into  the  fiery  gulf. 

It  has  been  said  that  he  made  the  Civil  War. 
No  doubt  he  precipitated  it,  but  that  is  a  differ 
ent  thing  from  being  responsible  for  it.  Fred 
erick  the  Great  precipitated  the  Seven  Years' 
War ;  but  he  did  so,  as  we  all  know,  as  an  act  of 
self-defence.  /If  any  one  individual  was  respon 
sible  for  the*  war  it  was  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
with  his  iniquitous  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  all  the 
more  iniquitous  since  it  pretended  to  be  based 
on  democratic  principles.  Next  to  Douglas 
come  Franklin  Pierce  and  Caleb  Gushing,  with 


228  Appejidix. 

their  support  of  the  "  law  and  order  party  "  in 
Kansas.  H.  von  Hoist  has  made  this  so  plain 
that  only  those  who  are  perverse  can  fail  to  be 
convinced  of  it.  In  brief,  the  slavery  question 
might  be  compared  to  a  powder  magazine,  cov 
ered  up  and  protected  by  Henry  Clay  with  suc 
cessive  layers  of  compromise,  the  last  of  which  in 
cluded  Webster's  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  Through 
all  these  protections  Douglas  bored  a  hole  with 
a  sharp  auger  called  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill ; 
Pierce  then  laid  the  train,  which  was  suddenly 
exploded  by  John  Brown  in  a  flash  of  heaven's 
own  lightning. 

In  a  higher  sense,  as  Lincoln  would  have  said, 
it  seems  almost  a  pity  that  anything  should  have 
been  written  about  John  Brown.  Almost  imme 
diately  from  the  time  of  his  death  he  became 
an  ideal  character  in  the  thoughts  of  men. 
Probably  he  will  remain  so  in  spite  of  all  that 
may  be  said  about  him ;  and  in  some  future  age, 
a  more  poetical  and  less  critical  one  than  the 
present,  it  is  likely  he  will  become  the  central 
figure  in  some  epic  commemorating  the  great 
anti-slavery  struggle.  Since  Cromwell's  time 


Appendix.  229 

there  has  been  perhaps  no  other  such  grand 
personality.  His  features,  "  chiselled  as  it  were 
in  granite,"  bore  the  stamp  of  the  hero;  and 
when  Brackett's  bust  of  him  was  placed  among 
those  of  the  Roman  emperors  in  the  Athenaeum, 
it  made  them  all  to  appear  insignificant.  Was- 
son  said  of  him,  "  His  was  the  most  determined 
face  I  ever  beheld.  His  lips  were  like  the  lips 
of  fate,  and  yet  they  met  together  as  lightly  as 
rose  petals.  There  was  no  contraction  of  the 
facial  muscles,  no  clinching  of  the  teeth ;  his 
determination  was  of  a  pure  moral  quality. 
Like  Socrates,  the  man  was  possessed  of  a 
genius  which  was  too  much  for  him."  The 
penetrating  look  of  his  eye  has  been  already 
mentioned,  but  the  tone  of  his  voice  was  also  so 
penetrating  that  its  echoes  are  sometimes  yet 
to  be  heard.  Two  years  since  I  met  a  South 
Carolinian  who  had  been  a  colonel  in  the  Con 
federate  army,  and  he  told  me  quite  a  dramatic 
story  of  an  interview  between  John  Brown  and 
Governor  Wise  of  Virginia,  and  as  he  repeated 
the  words,  "  It  is  only  a  brief  moment,  Governor 
Wise,  that  any  of  us  live  on  this  earth,"  the  tones 


2  30  Appendix. 

of  the  narrator's  voice  startled  me,  for  I  heard 
in  them  the  tone  of  Brown's  own  voice  again 
after  twenty-five  years.  Now  this  colonel  had 
not  received  this  story  directly  from  Governor 
Wise,  but  at  second  or  third  hand.  The  oft 
repeated  tale  that  Governor  Wise  was  pro 
foundly  impressed  by  the  bearing  and  conver 
sation  of  John  Brown  has  lately  received 
positive  confirmation  from  Gen.  S.  C.  Arm 
strong  of  Hampton,  Va.  Brown,  Lincoln,  and 
Sumner  seem  to  be  the  three  Northern  men  of 
that  time  for  whom  Southerners  have  the  most 
respect. 

One  is  glad  to  learn  from  Sanborn's  biogra 
phy  that  John  Brown's  friends  endeavored  most 
earnestly  to  dissuade  him  from  the  Virginia  ex 
pedition.  Finally,  being  unable  to  move  him, 
they  proved  themselves  true  and  loyal  friends, 
and  gave  him  all  the  moral  and  material  sup 
port  they  could.  "  You  see  how  it  is,"  said 
Gerrit  Smith,  "  our  dear  old  friend  has  made  up 
his  mind  to  this  course,  and  qannot  be  turned 
from  it.  We  cannot  give  him  up  to  die  alone ; 
we  must  support  him."  This  loyalty  to  friends 


Appendix.  231 

and  kindred  was  the  basis  of  all  virtue  in  the 
earlier  ages  of  history ;  and  although  in  modern 
life  a  regard  for  abstract  right  is  held  to  be 
superior  to  it,  cases  still  occur  in  which  amid  a 
conflict  of  duties  we  are  compelled  to  fall  back 
again  on  the  old  corner-stone  of  human  society. 
It  was  in  such  Homeric  sense  that  his  most  in 
timate  friends  supported  John  Brown  in  his  at 
tempt  to  liberate  the  negroes  of  the  South. 
Froude  says  that  healthy  natures  act  more  from 
feeling  than  reflection,  and  in  spite  of  his  in 
tense  moral  earnestness  Brown  was  a  healthy, 
practical  nature,  —  one  that  looked  facts  full  in 
the  face,  and  felt  the  firm  earth  always  under  his 
feet.  His  presentiment  of  accomplishing  great 
things  in  Virginia  was  justified  by  the  result, 
though  in  a  different  way  from  what  he  had  at 
first  anticipated. 

When  in  1863,  George  L.  Stearns  was  estab 
lishing  a  bureau  for  the  recruitment  of  colored 
troops  at  Buffalo,  he  and  one  of  his  subordinates 
happened  to  be  taking  dinner  one  day  at  a  ho 
tel  on  the  Canadian  side  of  Niagara  River.  At 
the  same  table  were  a  number  of  secessionists 


232  Appendix. 

who  having  by  chance  escaped  from  the  Con 
federacy  were  in  no  hurry  to  return  South  again. 
Having  discovered  that  Mr.  Stearns  was  from 
Boston,  they  talked  to  each  other  about  the 
cowardly  Yankees  and  "  nigger  "  Abolitionists  in 
such  loud  tones  as  were  evidently  intended  to 
taunt  and  exasperate  him.  Having  endured 
this  for  some  time  he  finally  turned  to  his  com 
panion  and  said  in  a  clear,  strong  voice,  "  Mr. 

,  I  consider  it  the  proudest  act  of  my  life 

that  I  gave  good  old  John  Brown  every  pike 
and  rifle  he  carried  to  Harper's  Ferry."  Such 
a  retort  was  more  than  his  tormentors  had 
looked  for;  they  seemed  abashed  by  it  and 
soon  left  the  room.  I  believe  that  all  of  Brown's 
friends  felt  that  having  known  him  was  the 
highest  honor  and  good-fortune. 


THE   END. 

lH\k-  ^7 


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even  by  the  magazines,  and  which  he  has  treated  in  that  lively  and  spirited 
manner  for  which  he  is  especially  gifted.  The  result  is  a  volume  full  of  novel 
information  of  the  country,  humorous  and  pathetic  incidents,  vivid  descriptions 
of  its  magnificent  scenery,  shrewd  forecasts  of  its  future  wealth  and  greatness 
when  developed,  illustrated  and  embellished  with  such  lavishness  and  artistic 
elegance  as  has  never  before  been  attempted  in  any  similar  work  in  this  coun 
try. 

ADIRONDACK  TALES.  By  W.  H.  H.  MURRAY.  Illustrated.  i2mo. 
300  pages.  $1.25. 

Containing  John  Norton's  Christmas  —  Henry  Herbert's  Thanksgiving  —  A 
Strange  Visitor— Lost  in  the  Woods  — A  Jolly  Camp— Was  it  Suicide?  — 
The  Gambler's  Death  — The  Old  Beggar's  Dog  — The  Ball  — Who  was  he  ? 

Short  stories  in  Mr.  Murray's  best  vein — humorous;  pathetic;  full  of  the 
spirit  of  the  woods. 

HOW  DEACON  TUBMAN  AND  PARSON  WHITNEY  KEPT 
NEW  YEARS,  and  other  Stories.  By  W.  H.  H.  MURRAY.  i6mo. 
Illustrated.  $1.25. 

A    HEART    REGAINED.     By    CARMEN  SYLVA   (Queen    of    Roumania) 

Translated  by  MARY  A.  MITCHELL.     Fcap.  8vo.     Cloth.    $1.00. 
A  charming  story  by  this  talented  authoress,  told  in  her  vivid,  picturesqu* 
manner,  and  showing  how  patient  waiting  attains  to  ultimate  reward. 

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TRANSLATIONS  OF  Two  POWERFUL  GERMAN  NOVELS  BY  AUTHORS 
NEW  TO  AMERICAN  READERS. 

THE  LAST  VON  RECKENBURG.  By  LOUISE  VON  FRANCOIS.  Trans 
lated  from  the  third  German  edition.  370  pages.  Cr.  8vo.  Cloth,  gilt. 
$1.50. 

The  popularity  of  this  book  among  the  reading  public  of  Europe,  and  the 
interest  it  has  excited  in  critical  circles,  led  to  the  present  translation  into 
English.  Gustave  Freytag,  one  of  the  greatest  of  German  novelists,  says  of 
it :  "  Clear,  terse,  with  not  a  word  too  much,  and  rich  in  powerful  expres 
sions,  it  depicts  everything  in  short  sentences,  obedient  to  every  mood,  every 
change  of  color.  Readers  will  always  close  this  volume  with  a  consciousness 
that  they  have  received  a  rare  gift." 

MM.  Erckmann-Chatrian  have  depicted  the  feverish  excitement  of  France 
during  the  height  of  Napoleon's  meteor-like  blaze  :  this  equally  powerful  ro 
mance  shows  the  reaction  in  Germany  immediately  after  his  downfall,  when 
the  pulse  of  Europe  was  striving  to  regain  its  normal  beat. 

THE    MONK'S   WEDDING.     A   novel.     By   C.    F.    MEYER.     Cr.    8vo 

unique  binding,  gilt  top.    $1.25. 

This  is  an  Italian  story,  written  by  a  German,  and  translated  by  an  American, 
and  purports  to  be  narrated  by  the  poet  Dante  at  the  hospitable  hearth  of  his 
patron,  Can  Grande.  He  evolved  it  from  an  inscription  on  a  gravestone  : 
"Hie  jacet  monachus  Astorre  cum  uxore  Antiope.  Sepeliebat  Azzolinus" 
(Here  sleeps  the  monk  Astorre  with  his  wife  Antiope.  Ezzelin  gave  them 
burial).  Those  who  have  any  acquaintance  with  the  unscrupulous  machina 
tions  of  the  Italian,  and  particularly  of  the  Italian  ecclesiastic,  will  have  little 
difficulty  in  conjuring  up  what  a  grim,  lurid  tale  of  secret  crime  and  suffering  a 
"  Monk's  Wedding  "  is  sure  to  be.  It  is  of  sustained  and  absorbing  interest,  full 
of  delicate  touches  and  flashes  of  passion,  a  tragedy  which  cannot  fail  to  leave 
an  impression  of  power  upon  the  mind. 

WORKS  BY  WILLIAM  H.  RIDEING. 
THACKERAY'S     LONDON:       HIS     HAUNTS     AND     THE 

SCENES  OF  HIS   NOVELS.     With  two  original  Portraits  (etched 
and  engraved);  a  fac-simile  of  a  page  of  the  original  manuscript  of  "  The 
Newcomes  ;  "  together  with  several  exquisitely  engraved  woodcuts,     i  vol, 
square  i2mo.     Cloth,  gilt  top,  in  box.     $1.00.    Fourth  Edition. 
LITTLE  UPSTART,  A.     A  Novel.     Third  edition.  i6mo.  Cloth.   $1.25. 
"As  a  study  of  literary  and  would-be  literary  life  it  is  positively  brilliant- 
Many  well-known  figures  are  drawn  with  a  few  sweeping  touches.     The  book, 
as  a  story,  is  interesting  enough  for  the  mo?t  experienced  taste,  and,  as  a  satire, 
it  is  manly  and  healthy."  — John  Boyle  O' '  Reilly. 

"  Notably  free  from  the  least  sensationalism  or  unnaturalness.  .  .  Flashes  of 
sterling  wit,  with  touches  of  exquisite  pathos,  and  with  a  quiet  mastery  of  style 
which  I  have  rarely  seen  surpassed  in  American  fiction  and  seldom  equalled. 
The  incidental  bits  of  philosophy,  observation,  and  keen  worldly  knowledge 
have  few  parallels  in  our  literature."  —  Edgar  Fawcett. 

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PROF.  CLARK  MURRAY'S    WORKS. 

SOLOMON  MAIMON:  An  Autobiography.  Translated  from  the  Ger 
man,  with  Additions  and  Notes,  by  Prof.  J.  CLARK  MURRAY,  i  vol. 
Cr.  8vo.  Cloth.  307  pp.  $2.00. 

A  life  ivhich  forms  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  biographies  in  the  history 
ff  literature. 

The  London  Spectator  says:  "Dr.  Clark  Murray  has  had  the  rare  good 
fortune  of  first  presenting  this  singularly  vivid  book  in  an  English  translation 
as  pure  and  lively  as  if  it  were  an  original,  and  an  original  by  a  classic 
English  writer. 

George  Eliot,  in  "Daniel  Deronda,"  mentions  it  as  "that  wonderful  bit  of 
autobiography  —  the  life  of  the  Polish  Jew,  Solomon  Maimon  " ;  and  Milman, 
in  his  "  History  of  the  Jews,"  refers  to  it  as  a  curious  and  rare  book. 

HANDBOOK     OF     PSYCHOLOGY.      By  Prof.  J.  CLARK  MURRAY, 
LLD,,   Professor   of   Mental   and    Moral    Philosophy,    M'Gill    College, 
Montreal.     Cr.  8vo.     2d  edition,  enlarged  and  improved.     $1.75. 
Clearly  and  simply  written,  with  illustrations  so  well  chosen  that  the  dullest 
student  can  scarcely  fail  to  take  an  interest  in  the  subject. 

ADOPTED  FOR  USE  IN   COLLEGES  IN  SCOTLAND,  ENGLAND, 
CANADA,  AND   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

Prof.  Murray's  good  fortune  in  bringing  to  light  the  "  Maimon  Memoirs" 
together  ivith  the  increasing  popularity  of  his  "Handbook  of  Psychology"  ha* 
ittracted  the  attention  of  the  intellectual  ivorld,  giving  him.  a  position 
with  the  leaders  of  thought  of  the  present  age.  His  writings  are  at  once 
original  and  suggestive. 

AALESUNtr  TO   TETUAN.     By  CHAS,    R.   CORNING.    A  Volume  of 

Travel.    i2ino.    400  pp.    Cloth.     $2.00. 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  —  Portsmouth  —  Isle  of  Wight  —  Channel  Islands  — 
Normandy  —  Nice  —  Monte  Carlo — Genoa  —  Naples  and  its  Environments  — 
Rome  —  Verona  —  Venice  —  Norway  —  Sweden  —  St.  Petersburg —  Moscow  — 
Warsaw— Berlin  — Up  the  Rhine— Barcelona— Valencia  —  Seville  — Cadiz 
• — Morocco  —  Gibraltar — Granada — Madrid  and  the  Royal  Wedding — Bull 
Fights —  Escurial —  Biarritz —  Bordeaux  —  Paris. 


TAPPY'S  CHICKS:  or,  Links  Between  Nature  and  Human  Nature. 
By  MRS.  GEORGE  CUPPLES.  Illustrated.  i6mo.  Cloth,  $1.25. 

The  tenderness  and  humor  of  this  volume  are  simply  exquisite.  —  E.  P. 
W 'hippie. 

The  title  is  altogether  too  insignificant  for  so  delightful  and  valuable  a  work, 
^-Spectator  (London). 

It  is  not  merely  a  work  of  talent,  but  has  repeated  strokes  of  undeniable 
genius.  —  George  Macdonald.  \_In  preparation. 

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RALPH   WALDO   EMERSON,  PHILOSOPHER  AND  SEER.    An  Estimate 
of  his  Character  and  Genius.     By  A.  BRONSON  ALCOTT. 
With  portraits  and  other  illustrations.     Foolscap  octavo.  Gilt  top.  $1.50. 
One  hundred  copies  tvill  be  printed  on  larger  and  finer  paper,  8vo,  suitable 
for  the  insertion  of  extra  illustrations.     Bound  in  Roxburgh,  gilt  top.     Price 
to  Subscribers,    $3.00. 

A  book  about  Emerson,  written  by  the  one  man  who  stood  nearest  to  him  of 
all  men.  It  is  an  original  and  vital  contribution  to  Einersoma  ;  like  a  portrait 
of  one  of  the  old  masters  painted  by  his  own  brush.  [In  Press, 

HERMAN  GRIMM'S   WORKS. 

THE  LIFE  OF  RAPHAEL  as  shown  in  his  principal  works.  From  the 
German  of  HERMAN  GRIMM,  author  of  "The  Life  of  Michael  Angelo," 
etc.  }Vith  frontispiece,  after  Braun,  of  the  recently  discovered  portrait, 
outlined  by  Raphael  in  chalk.  Cr.  8vo.  Cloth.  $2.00. 

ESSAYS  ON  LITERATURE.  From  the  German  of  HERMAN  GRIMM, 
uniform  with  "The  Life  of  Raphael."  New  and  enlarged  edition,  care 
fully  corrected.  Cr.  8vo.  Cloth.  $2.00. 

BY  JAMES  H.  STARK. 

ANTIQUE  VIEWS  OF  YE  TOWNE  OF  BOSTON.    ByjAMEsH. 

STARK,  Assisted  by  Dr.  SAMUEL  A.  GREEN,  Ex-Mayor  of  Boston,  Libra 
rian  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society;  JOHN  WARD  DEAN,  Libra 
rian  of  the  New  England  Historic  Genealogical  Society ;  and  Judge 
MELLEN  CHAMBERLAIN,  of  the  Public  Library.  An  extensive  and  exhaust 
ive  work  hi  378  pages.  Large  quarto.  Illustrated  with  nearly  200  full 
size  reproductions  of  all  known  rare  maps,  old  prints,  etc.  i  vol,  4^°- 
Cloth.  $b.oo. 

BERMUDA  GUIDE.  A  description  of  everything  on  or  about  the  Ber 
muda  Islands,  concerning  which  the  visitor  or  resident  may  desire  informa 
tion,  including  its  history,  inhabitants,  climate,  agriculture,  geology, 
government,  military  and  naval  establishments.  By  JAMES  H.  STARK. 
With  Maps,  Engravings  and  16  photo-prints.  i  vol.  i2mo,  cloth, 
157  pp.  $2.00. 

PAUL  REVERE:  Historical  and  Legendary.  By  ELBRIDGE  H.  Goss. 
With  reproductions  of  many  of  Revere's  engravings,  etc.  [In press. 

A  DIRECTORY  OF  THE  CHARITABLE  AND  BENEFICENT 
ORGANIZATIONS  OF  BOSTON,  ETC.  Prepared  for  the  Asso- 
dated  Charities,  i  vol.,  196  pp.  i6mo.  Cloth,  $1.00. 

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WORKS  BY  SALLY  PRATT  MCLEAN. 

CAPE    COD    FOLKS.    A  novel.  Twenty-third  edition.    Illustrated. 
Cloth.     $1.25. 

TOWHEAD:    THE   STORY   OF   A  GIRL.    Fifth  thousand, 
Cloth.    $1.25. 

SOME  OTHER  FOLKS.    A  Book  in  Four  Stories,    wmo.    Cloth.    $1.25. 

These  books  are  so  well  known  that  further  comment  seems  superfluous. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  entire  press  of  the  country  has  unanimously  spoken  of 
them  in  terms  of  high  praise,  dwelling  not  only  on  their  delicious  humor,  their 
literary  workmanship,  their  genuine  pathos,  and  their  real  power  and  eloquence, 
but  what  has  been  described  as  their  deep,  true  Aumanness,  and  the  inimitable 
manner  in  which  the  mirror  is  held  up  to  nature  that  all  may  see  reflected 
therein  some  familiar  trait,  some  description  or  character  which  is  at  once  recog 
nized. 

MISS  MCLEAN'S  NEW  BOOK. 

Since  the  production  of  Miss  McLean's  first  effort  "  Cape  Cod  Folks,"  she 
has  steadily  advanced  in  intellectual  development ;  the  same  genius  is  at  work 
in  a  larger  and  more  artistic  manner,  until  she  has  at  length  produced  what 
must  be  truly  considered  as  her  masterpiece,  and  which  we  have  the  pleasure  to 
announce  for  immediate  publication. 

LASTCHANCE   JUNCTION;   FAR,    FAR   WEST.    A  novel.    By 
SALLY  PRATT  MCLEAN,     i  vol.     i2ino     Cloth.    $1.25. 

The  author  in  this  book  sees  further  and  clearer  than  she  saw  in  her  earlier 
works  ;  she  has  stepped,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  limits  of  her  former  thought  and 
action  into  the  centre  of  the  arena  of  the  world's  full,  rich  life  ;  from  the  indi 
vidual  characteristic  she  has  passed  to  the  larger  weaknesses  and  virtues  of 
humanity,  vith  their  inevitable  results  of  tragedy  and  nobility.  Much  as 
has  been  said  respecting  the  pathos  of  her  former  books,  one  feels,  as  the 
last  page  of  "  Lastchance  Junction  "  has  been  turned,  that  they  were  but  small 
as  compared  with  this,  so  terribly  earnest  is  it,  so  true  in  its  delineation  of  life, 
with  all  its  elements  of  tragedy  and  comedy  ;  and  life,  moreover,  in  that  region 
of  our  cou"try  where  Nature  still  reigns  supreme,  and  where  humanity,  uncon 
trolled  by  the  conventionalities  of  more  civilized  communities,  stands  sharply 
drawn  in  the  strong  shadows  of  villainy  and  misery,  and  in  the  high  lights  of 
uncultured,  strong  nobility  and  gentleness.  There  are  no  half-tones. 

Terse,  incisive  descriptions  of  men  and  scenery,  drawn  with  so  vivid  a  pen 
that  one  can  see  the  characters  and  their  setting,  delicious  bits  of  humor, 
passages  full  of  infinite  pathos,  make  this  book  absolutely  hold  the  reader  from 
the  title  to  the  last  word,  and  as,  when  finished,  one  sighs  for  the  pity  of  it,  the 
feeling  rises  that  such  a  work  has  not  been  written  in  vain,  and  will  have  its 
place  among  those  which  tend  to  elevate  our  race. 

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SCOTTISH  HUMOR. 

DAVID  KENNEDY,  THE  SCOTTISH  SINGER:  Reminiscences 
of  his  Life  and  Work  by  MARJORY  KENNEDY.  With  portrait  and  illustra 
tions.  8vo.  Cloth.  479  pp.  $2.00. 

A  highly  interesting  narrative  of  this  humorous  and  pathetic  singer,  who  will 
be  remembered  the  world  over,  not  only  by  Scotchmen,  but  by  all  those  who,  at 
any  time,  have  formed  a  part  of  his  delighted  audiences,  and  who  recall  the  in~ 
imitable  manner  in  which  he  rendered  all  that  is  best  in  Scottish  poetry  and  song. 
Genuine  fun  and  drollery,  keen  observation  of  men  and  manners,  notes  of  travel 
in  many  cities,  the  vicissitudes  of  an  artistic  career,  are  all  depicted  here  with 
force  and  style. 

NEW  AND  CHARMING  WORK  ON  JAPAN. 

NINE  YEARS  IN  NIPON  :  SKETCHES  OF  JAPANESE  LIFE 
AND  MANNERS.  By  HENRY  FAULDS,  L.  F.  P.  S.,  Surgeon  of  TSUKUI 
Hospital,  Tokio  ;  Member  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society.  With  lithographed 
frontispiece,  and  initial  letters  and  illustrations  on  wood  by  .Japanese 
artists,  i  vol.  304  pp.  8vo.  Cloth.  With  appropriate  and  original  cover 
designs.  $2.00. 

The  best  inexpensive  book  on  Japan  that  has  yet  appeared ;  valuable  as  the 
record  of  the  observations  and  experiences  of  one  who,  by  virtue  of  his  profes 
sion  and  his  long  residence,  was  admitted  into  the  inner  life  of  that  conserva 
tive  people,  the  Japanese.  Teeming  with  accurate  information  and  eloquent 
description,  especially  of  the  social  life  of  the  people,  of  which  the  ordinary 
traveller  sees  practically  nothing,  it  is  a  valuable  addition  to  the  literature  of 
geographical,  ethnological,  and  social  science. 

THE  TERRACE  OF  MON  DESIR.  A  Novel  of  Russian  Life.  By 
SOPHIE  RADFORD  DE  MEISSNER.  12010.  Cloth  limp,  elegant.  $1.25.  3rd 
edition. 

This  novel  is  written  by  the  A  merican  wife  of  a  Russian  diplomat,  who,  by 
virtue  of  her  position,  is  well  qualified  to  describe  the  scenes  and  characters 
which  she  has  chosen  to  present',  she  writes  with  the  clear,  unbiassed  view  of 
her  native  country,  and  shows,  perhaps  for  the  first  time,  an  unprejudiced  pict 
ure  of  Russian  society. 

Her  literary  style  has  been  pronounced  easy  and  flowing,  with  a  certain  opu 
lence  in  its  swift  panorama  of  bright  scenes  and  high  personages,  and  readers 
who  recall  the  charming  story  of  Switzerland  which  appeared  in  a  late  mim'^r 
of  "  Scribner"  will  need  no  further  recommendation  to  the  perusal  of  this 
work. 

In  these  days  when  so  much  interest  and  sympathy  is  evoked  by  the  narration 
of  the  miseries  of  the  tnoujik  this  novel  comes  very  a  propos,  as  it  presents 
a  picture  of  the  social  and  domestic  life  of  that  other  branch  of  the  Russians,  the 
aristocratic,  governing  class  ;  who,  notwithstanding  their  adherence  to  French 
models,  still  have  that  indefinite  touch  of  their  Oriental  ancestry  which  gives 
them  their  romance  and  passion,  and  renders  them  as  emphatically  Russian  as 
the  most  humble  peasant. 

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THE  HEIDI  SERIES. 
STORIES  FOR  CHILDREN  AND  THOSE  WHO  LOVE  CHILDREN. 

Translated  from  the  German  of  Johanna.  Spyri  by  Louise  Brooks. 

HEIDI  I       HER  YEARS  OF  WANDERING  AND   LEARNING.      HOW  SHE   USED  WHAT 

SHE  LEARNED.     2  vols.  in  one.     i2mo.     Cloth,     pp.  668.     8th  edition,  with 
7  illustrations,  and  portrait  of  the  Authoress.     $1.50. 

RICO  AND   WISELI.     "RICO  AND   STINELLI,"   and   "HOW 
RICO  FOUND  A  HOME."    wmo.    PP.  509-    Cloth.    $1.50. 

VERONICA  AND  OTHER  FRIENDS.    «mo.  517  pages.  Cloth.  $1.5.. 
GRITLI'S  CHILDREN.     «mo.     39/pages.     Cloth.     $1.50. 

The  Atlantic  Monthly  pronounces  "  Heidi  "  "a  delightful  book  .  .  .  charm* 
ingly  told.  The  book  is,  as  it  should  be,  printed  in  clear  type,  well  leaded,  and 
is  bound  in  excellent  taste.  Altogether  it  is  one  which  we  suspect  will  be 
looked  back  upon  a  generation  hence  by  people  who  now  read  it  in  their  child 
hood,  and  they  will  hunt  for  the  old  copy  to  read  in  it  to  their  children." 

A  leading  Sunday-school  paper  further  says  :  "  No  better  books  for  a  Sunday- 
school  library  have  been  published  for  a  long  time.  Scholars  of  all  ages  will 
read  them  with  delight.  Teachers  and  parents  will  share  the  children's  enjoy 
ment." 

The  steadily  increasing  sales  of  these  books  attest  to  their  extreme  popularity 
and  value,  and  it  has  been  truly  said  that  their  publication  marks  an  era  in  the 
history  of  juvenile  literature.  Their  sweetness,  purity,  and  freedom  from  any 
sectarian  bias,  have  secured  for  them  a  place  in  the  Sundav-school  libraries  of 
all  denominations,  and  make  them  as  welcome  to  those  having  charge  of  the 
young  as  they  are  to  the  children  themselves. 

OLD    NEW    ENGLAND    DAYS.     A  story  of  true  life.     By  SOPHIE  M. 
DAMON.     Second  edition.     :6mo.     $1.25. 

"  Reading  '  Old  New  England  Days  '  is  like  talking  with  an  old  lady  who  has 
long  since  passed  the  allotted  "  three  score  and  ten,"  and  now  delights  in  noth 
ing  so  much  as  in  recalling  the  far  distant  days  of  her  youth." — Concord  Even 
ing  Gazette. 

"  The  beauty  of  the  tale  is  in  the  touches  of  Yankee  life  and  lore,  joy  and 
sorrow,  which  crop  out  at  every  turn  of  the  page,  like  dandelions  in  a  summer 
field." — Christian  Journal. 

MAHALY  SAWYER;    OR,  PUTTING   YOURSELF  IN    HER 
PLACE.     By  S.  E.  DOUGLASS.     i6mo.     Cloth.    $1.25. 

This  is  a  very  curious  and  a  remarkably  interesting  little  book.  The  Chris 
tian  Register,  one  of  the  ablest  of  critical  reviews,  says:  ''  If  the  number  of 
people  vitally  interested  in  the  motif  oi  this  bright  story  should  all  be  the  num 
ber  of  its  readers,  it  would  have  a  circulation  equal  to  '  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.' 
...  It  is  a  realistic  tale,  which,  in  its  way,  puts  Mr.  Howells  to  shame." 

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Like  a  pearl  on  the  sands  of  the  seashore  is  the  story  of  Christine  among  the 
average  novels  of  the  day.  The  interest  is  sustained,  and  no  one  \vlio  begins 
the  book  will  lay  it  down  until  he  has  finished  reading  it,  and  will  rise  from  it 
with  the  feeling  that  he  has  been  in  excellent  company.  The  style,  the  senti 
ments,  and  the  teachings  are  faultless  and  ennobling. 

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dom  "  which  is  first  pure,  then  peaceable,  gentle,  and  easy  to  be  entreated,  full 
of  mercy  and  good  fruits." 

OUR    PARTY    OF    FOUR.     A  story   of    Travel,     i  vol.  i6mo.     Cloth 
elegant.    $1.00. 

Readers  will  find  great  pleasure  in  following  the  fortunes  of  the  kind-hearted 
narrator  and  her  three  friends  in  their  European  tour,  and  in  the  glimpses  of 
their  subsequent  careers  at  home.  A  rare  combination  of  travel,  intellectual 
discussion,  exciting  adventure,  and  the  portrayal  of  earnest  feeling  and  refined 
sentiment. 

THE  ANGEL  OF  THE  VILLAGE.     By  L.  M.  OHORN.     Translated  by 
Mrs.  MATHEWS.     i6mo.     Cloth.    $1.25. 

"A  work  possessing  unusually  high  merit.  It  is  such  fiction  as  elevates  and 
makes  beneficent  influences  keenly  manifest ;  .  .  abounding  in  deepest  inte 
rest,  and  written  in  the  most  fascinating  style. "—Journal,  Philipsburg,  Pa. 

"  Purely  and  pleasantly  written." — Christian  Register. 

"  Honest  and  pure  in  tone,  with  a  distinctly  religious  inspiration." — Ameri 
can,  Philadelphia. 

"  Elevated  in  tone,  and  healthy  in  its  suggestions  and  influence."—  Univer- 
salist  Quarterly, 

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THREE  THRILLING  NOVELS  IN  THE  STYLE  OF  THE  MODERN  FRENCH 
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MR.   AND    MRS-    MORTON.    A   Novel,     gth  thousand.     12010.    Cloth. 

$1.25. 

A  powerfully  told  story  of  domestic  misunderstanding  which  turns  upon  an 
event  of  so  startling  a  nature  that  the  reader's  attention  is  at  once  arrested  and 
held  to  the  end.  Without  revealing  the  plot  of  the  book,  we  can  say  that  it 
concerns  the  marvellous  effects  of  atavism  and  the  influence  of  heredity,  and  is 
totally  unexpected,  yet  probable  withal.  Lucidly  and  concisely  written,  with 
out  unnecessary  verbiage. 

SILKEN    THREADS:    A  DETECTIVE  STORY.    By  the  Author 

of  "  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morton."     i6mo.     Cloth.     $1.25. 

One  of  the  best  stones  of  its  kind  that  has  appeared  of  late,  and  worthy,  in 
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Boisgobey,  while  it  has  not  that  tediousness  which  sometimes  renders  these 
authors  distasteful  to  American  readers.  Wilkie  Collins  never  invented  a  more 
ingeniously  constructed  plot,  or  told  it  in  a  more  interesting  way. 

"  Construction  of  work  is  admirable,  the  denouement  very  cleverly  developed. 
.  .  .  Neither  more  nor  less  than  'that  bright  consummate  flower,'  genius,  re 
appearing  in  the  department  of  detection  —  the  latest  Vidocq."  —  Boston  Globe. 

THE  DISK:  A  TALE  OF  TWO  PASSIONS.    By  E.  A.ROBINSON 

and  GEORGE  A.  WALL.     i2mo.     Cloth.    $1.00. 

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resembles  nothing  hitherto  published,  and  the  demand  for  it  continues  unabated. 
It  approaches  more  nearly  the  wonderful  romances  of  Jules  Verne  in  intricacy 
of  plot,  in  wealth  of  scientific  detail  and  vivid  imagination,  than  any  book  now 
before  the  public;  even  surpassinghim  in  the  marvellous  developments  of  science 
suggested  by  the  ingenious  pen  of  its  authors.  It  is,  as  its  name  denotes,  \ 
narrative  of  the  supreme  power  of  the  two  passions  of  love  and  science  upon 
different  organizations,  and  is  equally  good  in  the  charm  of  its  love  scenes  and 
in  the  weirdness  and  power  of  its  description  of  occult  investigations. 


ZORAH  :  A  LOVE  STORY  OF  MODERN  EGYPT.  BY  ELIZABETH 
BALCH.  Cr.  8vo.  Cloth  elegant.  $1.25. 

It  is  an  excellent  study  of  the  political  and  social  atmosphere  surrounding 
official  life  in  Cairo  and  Alexandria  at  the  present  day,  with  its  underlying 
stratum  of  Oriental  romanticism,  and  the  constantly  varying  stream  of  Western 
influences  which  are  slowly  but  surely  shaping  the  destinies  of  the  country. 

"  Depicted  with  artistic  power,  and,  as  a  love  story,  it  is  of  absorbing  interest. 
.  .  .  Told  with  all  the  rich  coloring  of  the  East."  —  Boston  Home  Journal. 

"  Cleverly  conceived  and  written."  —  Boston  Globe. 

"  Well  worth  reading."  —  Julian  Hawthorne. 

"Shows  a  very  keen  observation  and  a  marked  descriptive  faculty."  — 
Churchman. 

"Its  very  incongruities  make  it  readable."  —  Philadelphia  Times. 


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THE  FOUR  GOSPELS.     Translated  into  Modern  English  from  the  Au- 
thorized  and  Revised  Versions.     By  ERNEST  BILTON.     Cloth.     $1.00. 
A  cheap  edition  of  a  ne'ju  translation  of  the  Gospels^  having  a  great  run  of 
popularity  in  the  religious  circles  of  Great  Britain. 

The  author  lias  taken  the  authorised  version  as  it  stands,  availing  him 
self  of  many  corrections  suggested  by  the  revised  version,  and  has  given  the 
apparent  meaning  of  the  text  in  the  plainest  possible  language,  the  whole 
object  being  the  simplification  of  the  narratives  of  the  Evangelists.  It  is  not 
expected  that  this  rendering  will  supersede  the  accepted  version.  The  author 
evidently  feels  that  he  is  not  without  hope  that  it  may  lead  to  the  serious  con 
sideration,  in  proper  quarters,  of  the  advisability  of  providing  the  people 
with  an  authorised  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  "vulgar  tongue." 
not  of  the  sixteenth  but  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

THESKETCHES  OF  THE  CLANS  OF  SCOTLAND,  with  twenty- 
two  full-page  colored  plates  of  Tartans,  By  CLANSMEN  J.  M.  P.  -  F.  W.  S. 
Large  8vo.  Cloth,  $2.00. 

The  object  of  this  treatise  is  to  give  a  concise  account  of  the  origin,  seat,  and 
characteristics  of  the  Scottish  clans,  together  with  a  representation  of  the  dis 
tinguishing  tartan  worn  by  each.  The  illustrations  are  fine  specimens  of  color 
work,  all  executed  in  Scotland. 

THE  GREEN   HAND;  or,  the  Adventures  of  a  Naval  Lieutenant.     A  Sea 
Story.     By  GEORGE   CUPPLES.     With   Portrait   of  the   Author  and  other 
Illustrations,     i  vol.     121110.     Cloth.     $2.00. 
A  new  library  edition  of  this  fascinating  sea  classic.  [In  press. 

ALL    MATTER   TENDS   TO    ROTATION,  OR  THE  ORIGIN 

OF  ENERGY.  A  New  Hypothesis  which  throws  Light  upon  all  the 
Phenomena  of  Nature.  Electricity,  Magnetism,  Gravitation,  Light, 
Heat,  and  Chemical  Action  explained  upon  Mechanical  Principles  and 
traced  to  a  Single  Source.  By  LEONIDAS  LE  CENCI  HAMILTON,  M.A. 
Vol.  i.  Origin  oi  Energy  Electrostatics  and  Magnetism.  Containing  100 
Illustrations,  mcludine  Fine  Steel  Portraits  of  Faraday  and  Maxwell. 
Handsomely  bound  ir>  cloth.  8vo,  340  pp.  Price,  $3.00.-  Net. 

In  vhis  volume  the  author  has  utilized  the  modern  conception  of  lines  of 
torce  originated  by  Faraday,  and  afterwards  developed  mathematically  by 
Prof.  J.  Clerk  Maxwell,  and  he  has  reached  an  explanation  of  electrical  and 
magnetic  phenomena  which  has  been  expected  by  physicists  on  both  conti 
nents.  It  may  have  a  greater  influence  upon  the  scientific  world  than  either 
Newton's  "  Principia  or  Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species,"  because  it  places 
natural  science  upon  its  only  true  basis —  Pure  Mechanics. 

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JOHN   BROWN.     By  HERMANN  VON  HOLST,  author  of  "Constitutional 
History  of  the  United  States,"  &c.,  together  with  an  introduction  and  appen 
dix  by  FRANK  P.  STEARNS,  a  poem  by  Mr.  WASON,  and  a  letter  describing 
John  Brown's  grave.     Illustrated.     i6mo,  gilt  top.    $1.50. 
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tory,"  and  by  his  biography  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest  to 
all  students  of  American  history,  who  appreciate  a  calm,  impartial  criticism  of 
a  man  and  an  episode  which  have  been  universally  and  powerfully  discussed. 

MARGARET;  and  THE  SINGER'S  STORY.    By  EFFIE  DOUGLASS 
PUTNAM.     Daintily    bound  in   white,   stamped   in   gold   and    color,    gilt 
edges.     i6mo.     $1.25. 
A  collection  of  charming  poems,   many   of  which  are   familiar  through  the 

medium    of  the  magazines  and  newspaper  press,  with  some  more  ambitious 

flights,  amply  fulfilling  the  promise  of  the  shorter  efforts.     Tender  and  pastoral, 

breathing  the  simple  atmosphere  of  the  fields  and  woods. 

AROUND    THE     GOLDEN     DEEP.      A    Romance    of   the    Sierras. 

By  A.  P.  REEDER.    500  pages.    i2mo.     Cloth.    $1.50. 

A  novel  of  incident  and  adventure,  depicting  with  a  strong  hand  the  virile  life 
of  the  mine  that  gives  its  name  to  the  story,  and  contrasting  it  with  the  more 
refined  touches  of  society  in  the  larger  cities  ;  well  written  and  interesting. 

SIGNOR  I.     By  SALVATORE  FARINA.    Translated  by  the  Baroness  LANGE- 

NAU.     i2mo.     Cloth.     $1.25. 

A  dainty  story  by  an  Italian  author,  recalling  in  the  unique  handling  of  its 
incidents,  and  in  the  development  of  its  plot,  the  delicate  charm  of  "  Marjorie 
Daw." 

MIDNIGHT  SUNBEAMS,  OR  BITS  OF  TRAVEL  THROUGH 

THE    LAND  OF  THE  NORSEMAN.  By  EDWIN  COOLIDGE  KIM- 

BALL.     On  fine  paper,  foolscap  8vo,  tastefully  and  strongly  bound,  with 

vignette.     Cloth.     $1.25. 

P.onounced  by  Scandinavians  to  be  accurate  in  its  facts  and  descriptions, 

*nd  of  great  interest  to  all  who  intend  to   travel  in  or  have  come  from  Norway 

tr  Sweden. 

WOODNOTES    IN    THE   GLOAMING.      Poems  and  Translations  by 

MARY  MORGAN.     Square  i6mo.     Cloth,  full  gilt.    $1.25. 
A  collection  of  poems  and  sonnets  showing  great  talent,  and  valuable  transla 
tions  from  Gautier,   Heine,  Uhland,  Sully-Prudhomme,    Gottschalk,    Michae.) 
Angelo,  and   others.     Also  prose   translations  from  the  German,  edited  and 
prefaced  by  Max  Miiller. 

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THOMAS  CARLYLE'S  COUNSELS  TO  A  LITERARY  ASPI 
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Them.  With  a  brief  estimate  of  the  man.  By  JAMES  HUTCHINSON  STIR 
LING,  LL.  D.  i2mo,  boards,  50  cents. 

Gives  a  side  of  the  rugged  old  Scotchman  which  will  be  new  to  most  readers. 
It  shows  that  he  was  not  always  gruff  and  bearish,  and  that  he  could  at  times 
think  of  somebody  besides  himself.  T/ie  letter  is  one  it>hich  every  young  man 
•who  has  a  leaning  towards  literary  work  will  read  and  ponder  over. 

SOCIAL    LIFE    AND    LITERATURE     FIFTY    YEARS    AGO. 

i6mo,  cloth,  white  paper  labels,  gilt  top.     $1.00. 

By  a  well-known  litterateur.  It  will  take  a  high  place  among  the  literature 
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Pickering  style. 

CIVILIZATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  By  MATTHEW 
ARNOLD.  And  Other  Essays  concerning  America.  i6mo,  unique  paper 
boards.  75  cents.  Cloth,  uncut,  $1.25.  The  cloth  binding  matches  the 
uniform  edition  of  his  collected  ivorks. 

Comprises  the  critical  essays,  which  created  so  much  discussion,  namely, 
"General  Grant,  an  Estimate."  "A  Word  about  America,"  "A  Word  more 
about  America,"  and  "  Civilization  in  the  United  States." 

***  This  collection  gathers  in  the  great  critic's  last  contributions?  to  literature. 

LEGENDS    OF    THE    RHINE.      From  the  German  of  P*x*.  BERNARD. 

Translated  by  FR.  ARNOLD.     Finely  Illustrated.     Small  4to.     Cloth. 
An  admirable  collection  of  the  popular  historical  traditions  of  tne  Rhine,  told 
with  taste  and  picturesque  simplicity.  [/«  press  ^ 

A  SELECTION  FROM  THE  POEMS  OF  PUSHKIN. 
Translated,  with  Critical  Notes  and  a  Bibliography.  By  IVAN  PANIN. 
author  of  "Thoughts."  Foolscap  8vo.  Unique  binding.  $2.00. 

The  first  published  translation  by  the  brilliant  young  Russian,  Ivan  Panin, 
whose  lectures  in  Boston  on  the  literature  of  Russia,  during  the  autumn  of  last 
,  ear,  attracted  crowded  houses. 

WIT,  WISDOM,  AND  PATHOS,  from  the  prose  of  HEINRICH  HEINE, 

with  a  few  pieces  from  the  "  Book  of  Songs  "     Selected  and  translated  by 

J.    SNODGRASS.      Second  edition,    thoroughly  revised.     Cr.    8vo,  338  pp. 

Cloth,  $2.00 

"A   treasure   of  almost   priceless   thought   and  criticism."  —  Contemporary 

Review. 

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STRAY  LEWES  FROM  NEWPORT.  By  MRS.  WM.  LAMONT 
WHEELER.  Exquisitely  printed  and  most  beautifully  bound  in  tapestry, 
white  and  gold.  Gilt  top.  Uncut  edges.  i2mo.  $1.50. 

Two  editions  of  these  charming  prose  idyls  were  exhausted  within  two  weeks 
of  publication.  Third  edition  now  preparing. 

The  author  is  familiar  with  every  detail  of  the  social  life  of  Newport,  in 
which  she  has  long  been  a  prominent  figure,  and  the  types  of  character  she 
presents  will  be  readily  recognized  as  direct  copies  from  nature.  She  is  inti 
mately  acquainted  with  the  scenes  she  describes,  and  the  literary  quality  of  her 
book  is  of  a  character  that  will  recommend  it  to  readers  of  cultivated  tastes. — 
Gazette. 

ION  A  :  A  Lay  of  Ancient  Greece.      By  PAYNE  ERSKINE.      Cr.  8vo.      Cloth. 

Gilt  top.     $1.75. 

Musical,  and  full  of  classic  beauty,  recalling  in  many  passages  the  delicate 
and  subtle  charm  of  Keats. 

WHAT  SHALL  MAKE  US  WHOLE?  or,  Thoughts  in  the  direction 
of  Man's  Spiritual  and  Physical  Integrity.  By  HELEN  BIGELOW  MERRI- 
MAN.  Third  Edition.  i6mo,  linique  boards.  75  cents. 

An  endeavor  to  present  in  a  popular  way  the  philosophy  and  practice  of 
mental  healing. 

The  author  does  not  claim  for  her  essay  either  completeness  or  permanent 
value,  but  hopes  "  to  fix  a  few  points  and  establish  a  few  relative  values,  in  an 
ticipation  of  the  time  when  human  research  and  experience  shall  complete  the 
pictures." 

She  holds  that  the  human  mind  can  achieve  nothing  that  is  so  good  except 
when  it  becomes  the  channel  of  the  infinite  spirit  of  God,  and  that  so-called 
mind  cures  are  not  brought  about  wholly  by  the  power  of  the  micH  over  the 
body,  or  by  the  influence  of  one  mind  over  another. 

Religious  enthusiasm  and  scientific  medicine  abound  in  cases  of  extraordi 
nary  cures  of  diseases  effected  by  what,  for  the  sake  of  convenience,  is  gener 
ally  called  "  faith." 

It  will  not  do,  says  the  British  Medical  Journal,  for  pathologists  and  psy 
chologists  to  treat  these  "  modern  miracles  "  so  cavalierly. 

In  them  are  exhibited,  in  a  more  or  less  legitimate  manner,  the  results  of  the 
action  of  the  mind  upon  the  bodily  functions  and  particles. 

Hysteria  is  curable  by  these  phenomena,  since  hysteria,  after  all,  is  only  an 
unhealthy  mastery  of  the  body  over  the  mind,  and  is  cured  by  this  or  any  other 
stimulus  to  the  imagination.  "Therefore,"  says  the  editor  of  the  above  jour 
nal,  "  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  faith-healing,  so  called,  may  have 
more  positive  results  than  we  have  been  accustomed  to  allow." 

TYPICAL    NEW    ENGLAND    ELMS    AND    OTHER    TREES- 

Reproduced  by  Photogravure  from  photographs  by  HENRY  BROOKS,  with  an 
Introduction,  and  with  Notes  by  L.  L.  Dame.     4to.  [Infress. 

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HOW  TO  WRITE  THE  HISTORY  OF  A   FAMILY.    By  W.  P. 

W.    PHILLIMORE,  M.  A.,  B.  C.  L.     i  vol.     Cr.  8vo.     Tastefully  printed  in 
antique  style,  handsomely  bound,    $2.00. 

Unassuming,  practical,  essentially  useful,  Mr.  Phillimore's  book  should  be  in 
the  hands  of  every  one  who  aspires  to  search  for  his  ancestors  and  to  learn  his 
family  history. — Athenceum. 

This  is  the  best  compendious  genealogist's  guide  that  has  yet  been  published, 
and  Mr.  Phillimore  deserves  the  thanks  and  appreciation  of  all  lovers  of  family 
history.  — Reliquary. 

Notice.  — Large  Paper  Edition.  A  few  copies,  »n  hand-made  paper,  wide  mar- 
gins,  bound  in  half  morocco,  may  be  obtained,  price  $6.50  net. 

THE  KINSHIP  OF  MEN:  An  Argument  from  Pedigrees  ;  or,  Genealogy 
Viewed  as  a  Science.  By  HENRY  KENDALL.  Cr.  Svo.  Cloth,  $2.00. 

The  old  pedigree-hunting  was  a  sign  of  pride  and  pretension ;  the  modern  is 
simply  dictated  by  the  desire  to  know  whatever  can  be  known.  The  one 
advanced  itself  by  the  methods  of  immoral  advocacy ;  the  other  proceeds  by 
those  of  scientific  research.  —  Spectator  (London). 

RECORDS  AND  RECORD  SEARCHING.    A  Guide  to  the  Genealo 
gist  and  Topographer.     By  WALTER  RYE.     Svo,  cloth.     Price  $2. 50. 
This  book  places  in  the  hands  of  the  Antiquary  and  Genealogist,  and  others 
interested  in  kindred  studies,  a  comprehensive  guide  to  the  enormous  mass  of 
material  which  is  available  in  his  researches,  showing  what  it  consists  of,  and 
where  it  can  be  found. 

ANCESTRAL  TABLETS.  A  Collections  of  Diagrams  for  Pedigrees,  so 
arranged  that  Eight  Generations  of  the  Ancestors  of  any  Person  may  be 
recorded  in  a  connected  and  simple  form.  By  WILLIAM  H.  WHITMORE, 
A.M.  SEVENTH  EDITION.  On  heavy  parchment  paper*  large  4*0, 
tastefully  and  strongly  bound,  Roxburgh  style.  Price  $2.00. 

"  No  one  with  the  least  bent  for  genealogical  research  ever  examined  this  in 
geniously  compact  substitute  for  the  '  family  tree '  without  longing  to  own  it. 
It  provides  for  the  recording  of  eight  lineal  generations,  and  is  a  perpetual 
incentive  to  the  pursuit  of  one's  ancestry."  —  Nation. 

THE  ELEMENTS  OF  HERALDRY.  A  practical  manual,  showing 
what  heraldry  is,  where  it  comes  from,  and  to  what  extent  it  is  applicable  to 
American  usage;  to  which  is  added  a  Glossary  in  English,  French  and 
Latin  of  the  forms  employed.  Profusely  Illustrated.  By  W.  H. 
WHITMORE,  author  of  "  Ancestral  Tablets,"  etc.  [/* press. 

CuppUs  and  Hurd,         Book*u*r*>  BOSTON. 

Library  Agents, 


RECENT  FICTION. 


Admirable  in  Quality.       Thoroughly  Interesting.      Specially 
adapted  for  Public  Libraries   and   Private  Reading. 

Each  volume   substantially  bound  in  Cloth. 


STRAY  LEAVES  FROM  NEWPORT.  WHEELER $i.5« 

THE  MONK'S  WEDDING.  By  C.  F.  MEYER 1.25 

OLD  NEW  ENGLAND  DAYS.  By  SOPHIK  M.  DAMON 1.25 

BLEDISLOE.  By  ADA  M.  TROTTER 1.50 

ZORAH.  By  ELISABETH  BALCH 1.25 

THE  LAST  VON  RECKENBURG.  By  LOUISE  FRANCOIS 1.50 

THE  ANGEL  OF  THE  VILLAGE.  By  L.  M.  OHORN 1.25 

How  DEACON  TUBMAN  AND  PARSON  WHITNEY  SPENT  NEW 

YEAR'S.  By  W.  H.  H.  MURRAY 1.25 

MAHALY  SAWYER.  By  S.  E.  DOUGLASS 1.25 

THE  TERRACE  OF  MON  DESIR.  A  Russian  Novel 1.25 

STORY  OF  AN  OLD  NEW  ENGLAND  TOWN.  By  MRS.  GREENOUGH.  i.oo 

CAPE  COD  FOLKS.  By  SALLY  P.  MCLEAN 1.50 

TOWHEAD.  The  Story  of  a  Girl.  By  SALLY  P.  McLsAN  .  .  .  1.50 

SOME  OTHER  FOLKS.  By  SALLY  P.  MCLEAN 1.50 

SIMPLY  A  LOVE  STORY.  By  PHILIP  ORNE 1.25 

A  LITTLE  UPSTART.  A  Novel.  By  W.  H.  RIDEING 1.25 

ANNOUCHKA.  By  IVAN  TOURGUENEFF.  Translated  by  F.  P.  ABBOTT  i.oo 

MOONSHINE.  By  F.  A.  TUPPER i.oo 

THE  LOVE  OF  A  LIFETIME.  By  CARROLL  WINCHESTER  .  .  .  .  i.oo 

FROM  MADGE  TO  MARGARET.  By  CARROLL  WINCHESTER  .  .  .  i.oo 

MR.  AND  MRS.  MORTON.  A  Novel 1.25 

SILKEN  THREADS.  By  the  author  of  "  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morton." 

i2mo.  Cloth 1.25 

THE  WIDOW  WYSE.  A  Novel 1.25 

WHEELS  AND  WHIMS.  An  Out-of-Doors  Story.  Illustrated  .  .  .  1.25 

ONE  AMONG  MANY.  By  MRS.  H.  B.  GOODWIN i.oo 

CHRISTINE'S  FORTUNE  "  "  i.oo 

DR.  HOWELL'S  FAMILY  "  i.oo 

OUR  PARTY  OF  FOUR.  A  Story  of  Travel.  By  MRS.  H.  B. 

GOODWIN i.oo 

PRIEST  AND  MAN,  OR,  ABELARD  AND  HELOISA.  A  Romance  .  .  1.50 

ADIRONDACK  TALES.  By  W.  H.  H.  MURRAY 1.25 

For  sale  by  all  Booksellers,   or   -mailed,   postpaid,   to  any  address  on 
receipt  of  price, 

CUPPLES  &  HURD,  PUBLISHERS,  94  Boylston  St.,  Boston, 


"  (Sood  as  it  is  to  inherit  a  Iibttat[g,  it  is  fatter 
to  toilet  one*  (Bach  uolume  then,  horceuer  lightlg 
a  stranger's  ege  mag  i;oam  ft[om  sh^lf  t^  sh^lf, 
has  its  own  huUciditalitg,  a  hist^r^  -of  its  ami. 
HIM  rLem^mb^r  tcher^  gou  jot  it,  and  hint  much 
gou  pr4  fm[  it.  .  .  ,  §h^  man  irho  has  a  librarg 
of  his  oitin  collection  is  alitc  to  Contemplate  him 
self  obje^tiuelg,  and  is  justified  in  beliedng  in 
ijis  oum  existpc^  J}Q  oth^r  man  but  he  tuould 
haue  made  precisetg  such  a  Combination  as  his* 
gad  hq  been  in  ang  singly  rLespei[t  different  friom 
trhat  h^  is,  his  libp^g,  as  it  exists,  neuett  irould 
hau$  existed*  ®her^forLe,  surelg  he  mag  exclaim, 
as  in  the  gloaming  fy  Contemplates  the  bachs 
of  his  loued  on^s,  *  ®heg  ar^  mine,  and  J  ant 
theirs/  " 

Obiter  Dicta. 

CUPPLES  4  HURD,  THE  ALGONQUIN  PRESS,   BOSTON. 


MAR  24  1980 


BEU>  cut.    MAR 


r-r>   -t     r>     <~ 


rec'd'wc.  APR    3  ^ 


— • ,_ 

IV  2  5  1999 


GENERAL  LIBRARY  -  U.C.  BERKELEY 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


